Political History of Northern India

Author(s): Gulabchandra Chaudhary
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar

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POLITICAL HISTORY OF N. INDIA FROM JAIN SOURCES
centuries A.D., which ultimately led to the foundation of the Vira-Saiva or Lingāyat sect, may have changed the creed of the Jain family into Saivism. The conversion of the Cālukya prince Jayasimha II (c. 1018-1042 A.D.) from Jainism to Saivism is an interesting example on the point. It is most likely that some members of the Sena family, influenced by the conversion of the ruling dynasty to Saivism, embraced the new creed.
It may again be argued that the Sena family or religious teachers could hardly have anything to do with the Sena family wielding political powers. But we can cite several instances which may show the possibility of the transformation of religious teachers to the founders of political powers. Haricand, the founder of the Pratihāra dynasty, was a Brāhmaṇa, proficient in Vedas.” Another example of Mayūraśarmā, the founder of the Kadamba dynasty, originally a devotee to the study of the Vedas and the performer of sacrificial rites, shows that in South also, creed or caste was not regarded as hindrance to a military career.3
The fact that Sämantasena, one of the ancestors of the Senas, is called Brahmavādi in the Deopārā inscription and that he retired in his old age to a hermitage on the bank of the Gangā, where even parrots knew by note the text of the Vedas, seems to support the conclusion that he too like Haricand and Mayūraśarma, was a Brāhmana and sprang up from a line of teachers, but due to certain circumstances he adopted a Ksatriya's life and soon gained prominence by acts of bravery in battles.
From the 8th verse of the Deopārā inscription we learn that Samantasena defeated the hostile forces that were plundering the Karņāța country. The western Cālukya inscriptions refer to the fact that shortly before 1060 A.D. the Cola king, Rājendra Deva, penetrated into the Dharwar district and burned the Jain temples but was eventually defeated and killed." It is not unlikely that Samantasena distinguished himself on this occasion by warding off the foreign attacks, and that this was the turning point in the fortunes of the family. This would give a satisfactory explanation to the puzzling word Brahma-kşatriya applied to him. In the Deopārā inscription of Vijayasena, which is one of the earliest documents of the Senas, they still remembered their Brahmin origin. But the prefix Brahma gradually
TEJ: TERTAT JE:
1 PTOC., II ( Calcutta ), 1922, p. 345. 2 EI., XVIII, p. 87., V. 6: Q af: fa 3 EI., VIII, pp. 31, 32, Vs. 4-20. 4 DHNI., I, p. 356. 5 BG., I, Pt. II, p. 442.