________________
and the Prasasti of the Mahapurāna reads :
दीनानाथधनं सदा बहुजनं प्रोत्फुल्लवल्लीवनं मान्याखेटपुरं पुरन्दरपुरीलीलाहरं सुन्दरम् । धारानाथनरेन्द्रकोपशिखिना दग्धं विदग्धप्रियम,
क्वेदानी वसतिं करिष्यति पुनः श्रीपुष्पदन्तः कविः ।। It speaks of the lovely capital Manyakheta of Raștrakütas ravaged by the king of Dhäră. The Yaśastilaka represents a lively picture of India a time when the Buddhist, Jaina and Brahmanical religions were still engaged in a contest that drew towards it the attention, and well-nigh absorbed the intellectual energies of all thinking men'. The story is of Yasodhara's different births and sufferings, popular among Jainas; but in the treatment of the same, Somadeva has shown such an encyclopaedic genius that a scholar today (like Dr. Handiqui) could reconstruct all shades of Vedic, Agamic, Tantric, and popular wisdom current at the time by research in this single work. He could truly say :
मया वागर्थसंभारे भक्त सारस्वते रसे ।
कवयोऽन्ये भविष्यन्ति ननमच्छिष्टभोजनाः ॥ "As I have sumptuously quaffed the nectar essence of all literary ingredients, the poets hereafter to come will have to content themselves with only my leavings !'.
Somadeva's second work which compels attention is his treatise on politics, viz. the Nitivakyamšta. It is modelled on Kautilya's Arthasastra in concise style as well
tent and has been recently translated into Italian. It is one of the very few books on the subject and has 32 chapters dealing, among other things, with the value of life, the sciences, the minister, preceptor, general, envoy, spy, saptaringas of state, judiciary, diplomacy, war and peace.
The patronage extended to Sanskrit writers by the Western Calukya kings of Kalyāṇa was almost unprecedented in the history of Karnatak. It appears as if there were a healthy competition between Bhoja of Dhärā and these kings in respect of patronage to poets. The Jaina Vădirāja in the court of Jayasimha II [Jagadekamalla (1015-1042 A.D.) was indeed a star deserving a place in the company of Samantabhadra and Akalanka. Mallişena-praśusti (E.I., III, P. 18) speaks of him in hyperbolis terms :
त्रैलोक्यदीपिका वाणी द्वाभ्यामेवोदजायत ।
जिनराजत एकस्मादपरस्माद्वादिराजतः ।। "A speech which illumined the three worlds has issued only from two persons on earth : one (was) the king of Jinas, the other-Vadiraja.
The present writer has given a exhaustive study of Vadiraja's Yasodharacarita in his edition of that work published with the commentary of Laksamana by the Karnatak University, Dharwar in 1963. It need not be repeated here. He philoso
34
- 265 -
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
