Jainism in Ealy Medieval Karnataka

Author(s): Ram Bhushan Prasad Singh
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 31

Sources
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Somadeva statesat the end of his work that he belonged to Deva saogha and was a disciple of Nemideva, who is said to have accepted the discipleship of Yaśodeva. He adds that he composed this work in Śaka era 881 (A.D. 959), when the Räştrakūta King Krsnadeva was celebrating his victories at Melpāți after conquering the Pāņdya, Coļa, Gera, and other kings.Somadeva's statement is confirmed by an epigraph of A.D. 959 found at Melpāți in North Arcot district. Though it records the grant of a village to a Saiva ascetic, it iefers to Krşņa III's victories over the above-mentioned powers.
But this does not mean that he composed his work at the Răstrakūta capital Mānyakheta. Somadeva specifies that the work was composed at Gangadhāra, which was thc capital of a prince named Vagarāja, the eldest son of a Cālukyan chief Arikesari, a feudatory chief of Krşnarāja. Handiqui identifies the place Gangadhāra with Gangawati in the Raichur district quile near the modern Dharwar in Mysore state,5 The Prabhaņī copper-plates, & which are dated in A.D. 966, also help us to determine the age of Somadeva. They record the grant of a village to Somadeva by thc Cālukya chief Arikesari IV for the maintenance of the Subhadhāma Jinālaya at modern Vemulvāda. It is therefore clear that Somadeva Süri flouri. shed in Karnataka during the 10th century A.D.
The Yaśastilaka emphasises the Jaina doctrine of nonviolence. Somadeva introduces two sets of characters, Sudatta and his twin disciples Abhayaruci and Abhayamati on the one hand and the king Māridatta on the other. The foriner represent the ideals of Jainism, and the latter the evil spirit of violence in crude form. Māridatta, who was going to sacrifice all the living creatures including human beings at the altar of the goddess Cāndamāri, is converted to the Jaina faith through the teachings of the young ascetics. The fourth chapter contains a dialogue between Yaśodhara and. 1. Taśastılaka, pt. ii, BK. viii, p. 419. 2. Ibid. p, 413, 3. El, iv, no. 40, pp. 278ff. 4. Taśastilaka, pt. 17, BK. viii, r 419.
K. K. Handiqui, Yasastilaka and Indian Culture, p. 4. The Prabhani copper-plates, cited in N. Venkataramanayya, TheCalukyas of Vemuldāda, pp. 92-4.