Medieval Jainism

Author(s): Bhasker Anand Saletore
Publisher: Karnataka Publishing House

Page 24

ROYAL BENEVOLENCE in this city was effected the first political success of Jainism, when a renowned Jaina guru initiated one of them into the syād vāda doctrine, and, as numerous epigraphs assert, “ gave them a kingdom."
The account of the victory which Jainism thus won is not given in any contemporary epigraph either of that celebrated Jaina guru or of his royal protégé. But several later records both of the Gangas and of the other royal families and old Jaina works clearly and unanimously give the story thereby
Now the Tamil Chronicle Kongudeśa-rājakkaļ gives A.D. 189 as the date for the king Konguņivarmā I. It asserts that he reigned for fifty-one years. (Rice, ibid., p. 32). If we take A.D. 189 as the initial year of that ruler, it may be maintained that he ruled from A. D. 189 till A. D. 250. The date A. D. 230 which we have given for that king on the basis of the date A.D. 475 given to king Avinīta, would, then, fit in quite well within his reign. And Mr. Govinda Pai's dates circa A.D. 250A.D. 283 given to Konguņivarmā I (Karnataka Historical Review, II, No. 1, p. 29) would be very near the correct date. Mr. B. V. Krishna Rao's dates for the same ruler, A.D. 340A.D.-400, (The Gangas of Talkad, pp. xi, 22) are far too arbitrary to be accepted. Narasimhacarya's discovery of many genuine Ganga records is of the greatest importance in this connection (M. A. R. for 1921, p. 17 ff.). But the dates A.D. 605650 given by him to king Durvinita—no doubt on a well' reasoned contemporaneity of that ruler with the famous poet Bhāravi-seem to be rather unacceptable. (M.A.R. for 1921, p. 28). For if Dr. Shama Sastry is right in assuming that king Avinita was anointed to the throne in A.D. 475, it cannot be that Avinita's son and successor Durvinita came to the throne in A.D. 605 ! Dr. Sastry has shown that the date A.D. 478 given to Durvinita by Rice is correct. (M.A.R. for 1923, p. 27). Pending a detailed study of the Gangas, I tentatively accept Rice's chrono logy as correct in the main. On the Kadamba-Ganga synchronisms in the reign of king Avinita, read Moraes, Kadamba-kula, pp. 55-59.