Jinamanjari 2000 04 No 21

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 14

Jinamaanjari, Volume 21, No.1, April 2000
THE RĀŞTRAKŪTAS AND JAINISM
Prof. Kamala Hampana, Bangalore
After vanquishing the Cāļukyas of Badāmi (Vātāpi), the Rāştrakūtas founded their great kingdom, vaster than any before their times, which included most of Dakšiņapatha. It was the greatest of India's imperial dynasties. According to Suleman (C. E.. 851), the famous Arab traveler, the Rāştrakūta kingdom was so enormous that it was considered as one of the four major kingdoms in the world. The Rāstrakūta era thus had ushered in the golden age of Jaina renaissance in all walks of life.
The powerful Dantidurga had conquered the shaky Cāļukyas. In his campaign of northern India, he seized Avanti and assumed the imperial title of Rājaparameśvara in C. E. 753. He was succeeded by his nephew Krishna-I (C.E. 756-72) who sealed the fate of the Cāļukyas and began the commission of Ellora temple. Reputed Jaina logician Bhatta-Akalankadeva was a contemporary to these two monarchs. According to Peterson, Akalankadeva and his brother Niskalanka were the sons of Subhatunga alias Krishnarāja, the Rāştrakūta emperor. Akalanka has been regarded as a great dialectician and the founder of medieval school of logic. The Mallisșena-Prasasti of Sravanabelgoļa mentions Akalañkadeva as a prestigious dialectic disputant at the court of Sahasatunga Dantidurga. It states that there was no other grandeur king like Krisnarāja on earth and no other erudite scholar like Akalanka. He remained a popular poet and his works are highly venerated. He confuted the Buddhists at the court of Himaśitala in Kanci in C.E. 788. It is also believed that he studied at Sravanabeļagoļa and became a monk at Maleyür, which is also known as Kanakagiri in modern Mysore district..
Akalankadeva has a number of works to his credit, prominent among them being: Tattvā-ratna-rāja-vārtika (a commentary on Tattvārtha-sutra of Umasvami), Siddhiviniscaya, . Laghivastravi, Astašati (the earliest commentary on the Aptamimāmsa (Devāgama-stotra) of Samantabhadradeva and other works on Jaina epistemology and logic.
According to Professor and historian Jyoti Prasad Jain, successive rulers - Govinda-II (C.E. 777), Srivallabha ( C. E. 779-793), Govinda-III (C. E. 793814) and his son Amoghavarşa (C. E. 815-877) followed their aggressive policy for further consolidation of their reign into a powerful kingdom whose boundaries had spread as far as Kerala and Kānchi in the south, Māļwa in the north, almost entire Gujrat and parts of Rājāsthan and in the east, their suzerainty over Vengi Cāļukyas was complete. A.S. Atlekar, an authority on the history of Rāstrakūtas, has observed that the Jainas formed one third of the total population of this southern region, and they were represented by all sections of the society - rulers and traders; farmers and labors; soldiers and scholars; artists and administrators. Atlekar also has opined that the contribution of the Rāstrakūtas
in the field of education is most noteworthy. There were numerous Jain Jain Education International For Private Iersonal Use Only