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THE DYNASTIES OF CENTRAL INDIA
107
The completion of stanzas (samasyā-pürti) was one of poetic fashions of the day and it is said that Bhoja was daily surrounded by a hundred scholars who were skilled in this type of poetic composition.'
The display of poetic repartee became part of diplomatic conversation also, mostly between Bhoja and Bhima I Cāulukya.
Bhoja was very proud of the learning and poetic skill of the scholars of his country and contemptuous of those of Gujarat. Once he remarked to the Gujarata consul in his court: "not one of your most famous scholars is fit to be weighed in the balance with a cowherd of my land."
A huge production of the Jain literature and other literatures during his period shows the multifarious activities of Bhoja to promote the cause of learning. Several Jain authors like Prabhācandra, Dhanapāla, śāntişena, Mahendrasūri. etc., flourished during his reign. Bhoja was also a just man. He always heard the complaints of his subjects and tried to remove them, He freely moved among his people to know their distress
His religion: Bhoja was a Saivite. A Jain work on grammar, namely, the Ganaratna-mahodadhi, relates: "Though your forefathers Vairisimha etc., were devotees of Siva, you only have realised the god Śiva. This statement confirms the above fact. He, however, always respected the learned men ir respective of caste and creed. A Jain inscription from Sravanabelgolā informs us that the feet of the Jain monk, Prabhācandra were worshipped by king Bhoja of Dhārā." A second Jain inscription from Dubkund of the time of the Kacchapaghāta king Vikramasimha mentions that the Jain preceptor śāntisena defeated all those (Ambaraşena etc.) scholars in the court of the
1 PC., pp. 35-43: 975qfosatara: — at TTTI 2 PC., p. 28: ART trei HÁ a aa .... tharraigatraat 7191
.... 3 PC., p. 45: 375giamia Hatzitsgut: Trosa: Sf 7 THTELI • See, Mahendrasūri-caritam, Sūrācārya-caritam, in PCA., pp. 138-60.
PC., pp. 47-49. Bijapūraka-prabandha, Ikşurasa prabandha and Gopaghiņiprabandha.
. Taddhita Ganādhyāya, IV, p. 163: aigzag Sa starfreifey ws: .विलासिनीवोवीपतिना कलौ यद्यलोकि लोकेऽत्रमृगांकमौलिः । 7 MDG., XXVIII, p. V. 17: tere TTFUFThara HEZI
R .... स्थेयात् पण्डितपुण्डरीकतरणि श्रीमान्प्रभाचन्द्रमा।
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