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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM is accepted, then, we cannot assign either Arikesari Māravarman or his supposed contemporary Jñānasambandhar, to the scventh century A.D. at all.
The following reasons will make our statement clear. Arikesari Asamasaman Māravarman, according to the combined genealogy of the bigger siņņmanūr and the Vēļvikkudi plates as given by Venkayya," was the father of Sadaiyan Koccadaiyan Ranadhira. We have clsewhere shown that the age of the latter Pāņdya ruler can be fixed only after studying the Alupa-Pāndya relations; that Sadaiyan Ranadhira lived in A.D. 794-A.D. 800; and that his father Arikesari Asamasaman Māravarman has to be assigned to A.D. 783.2 That is to say, the victor of the battle of Nelvēli should be assigned to the last quarter of the eighth century A.D. And if his identification with Kūn Pāņdya of Madura is accepted, then, it follows that his contemporary Tirujñānasambandhar is likewise to be assigned to the latter part of the eighth century A.D.
We may verify this conclusion of ours by noting the date of another contemporary of Tirujñānasambadhar-Jinasena. Basing his remarks on Karnāțaka Cakravarti's statement in the latter's work entitled Trişaștipurātanacarite, Dr. Shama Sastry identified Jinasena mentioned by Cakravarti with Jinasena, the author of Bịhadharivainsapurāņa. Now the date of the latter work as given by Jinasena is Saka 705 (A.D. 782). Hence if we accept the unanimous Saivite tradition
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1. Venkayya, Ep. Rep. S. Circle, for 1908, p. 66.
2. Salctore. Ancient Karnataka, I. pp. 214-219, 223. The name Arikesari Paränkusa Māravarman given by me should be corrected as Arikesari Asamasaman Māravarman. A. K., I, pp. 215, 217, 219.
3. M. A. R. for 1925, p. 12. On Jinasena, read Kamta Prasad Jain, 1. 11. Q., V, pp. 547-48.
