Jain Journal 2003 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 15

POET PAMPA, JINAVALLABHAAND ANDHRA:
A RETROSPECTION
Kamala Hampana Ādikavi Pampa (902-45), the earliest and greatest poet of Kannada literature, and a court-poet of King Arikesari-11 (930-55), has composed the Vikramārjunavijaya (=VAV) and the Adipurāņa, two epics of the War and Peace, respectively.
The VAV is considered as the first complete and abridged vernacular version of the celebrated Sanskrit Mahābhārta of Vyāsamuni. The poem was solicited by the courtly literate and paid for by Arikesari, the king himself. In the composite double-narrative of VAV, Pampa explicitly identifies Arikesari, the paramount overlord of the Vemulavāda Chālukyas and the epic poem's patron, with Arjuna of the Pāņdavas. The stanzas in the beginning and in the last canto of the VAV, eulogizing the outstanding achievements of king Arikesari and his forefathers, their fame, victories in battle, and other virtues are celebrated, defining the illustrious Arikesari's political aspirations as universalist. By identifying Arikesari, the Chālukya overlord, with Arjuna, an historical person with a mythological character, Pampa has immortalised his patron Arikesari (930-55) alias Ariga, a Chālukya feudatory of the Rāshtrakūtas. No other king of Andhradeśa is projected so felicitously as a National hero of an epic poem as Arikesari. Further it is worth contemplating that poet Pampa has not described Arikesari as an ardent follower of Jainism. In fact the poem VAV has little to do with Jainism.
King Arikesari, though a sāmanta, Duke of a principality of Vemulavāda, also known as Lembulapāțāka, in what is now western Andhra, had the valour and stature of an emperor. He lived and ruled like another Sāmrāța, a parallel Mahārāja. In the political milieu of Andhra, Arikesari played a prominent and memorable role assuming the inantle of primary vassal amid the fraying structure of the imperial Rāshțrakūta power. Virtually he held the actual power of the imperial Rāshțrakūta dynasty till Krishna-III (939-68) became powerful.
Arikesari figures prominently in the contemporary lithic records and literary texts where he is described with many epithets including the Gunārņava, 'sea of virturs’, Saraṇāgata-jalanidhi, 'sea