________________
234
THE JAINA GAZETTE (3) Ajitasena was also the preceptor of another protege of Camunda Raya, viz., the Kanarese poet Nagavarman, who says in his 'Chandombudhi': 'My king is king Rakkasa Ganga, the famous Ajitasena is my preceptor and Camunda Raya is my benevolent patron'.
(4) In the colophon to his Kanarese work, the 'Camundarayapurana,' Camunda Raya calls himself the discip!e of Ajitasena.1
(5) According to Sravana Belgola inscription no. 121 (circa 995 A.c.), Ajitasena seems to have been also the 'guru' of Jinadevana, the son of Camunda Raya.
(6) Nemicandra himself says in his 'Gommatasara' that Ajitasena was the 'guru' of Camunda Raya (Jivakanda 733 and Karmakanda 966).
(7) The 'Pattavali' of the 'sena' section of the Digambara Jainas describes Ajitasena as the 'guru' of Gamunda Raya (Jainasiddhantabhaskara, Prathamakirana, p. 38).%
All these facts, as also the tradition, found in the various works written on the colossus and its installation afford at least enough of circumstantial evidences in support of the conclusion that it was Ajitasena, and not Nemicandra, who officiated for Carnunda Raya at the installation of the Sravana Belgola colos. sus; whence it is obvious that Camunda Raya could have become acquainted with Nemicandra only after the installation, or at most at the time of it; for it is reasonable to believe that,
The colophon to Camunda Raya's Sanskrit work, the Caritragara (p. 1C3), also mentions Ajitasena as his 'guru'.
2 There are palpable discrepancies in this passage. For Chamunda Raya was not the king of southern Telugu country and Karnataka, but was the minister and general of the kings of the Ganga dynasty, who ruled in the southern Karnataka; and the rank assigned to Ajitasena, placing him eight places above Gunabhadra is untenable because of the fact that Ajitasena having been a contemporary of Camunda Raya lived in the latter half of the 10th century A.C., whereas Gunabhadra lived at the end of the 9th cent. as is evidenced from the verse in his 'Uttara purana'. Therefore Ajitasena who was the perceptor of Camunda Raya and the installer of the Sravana Belgola colossus .could never have preceded Gunabhadra, and thus the order of succession as given in this 'Pattavali' is anything but corrects This, however, cannot affect the fact of the installation of the coloasu. by Ajitasena on behalf of Camunda. It is interesting to note tbat in this pattavali it is clearly said that the image of Bahubali is called 'Gommatta' and not 'Babubali'. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
