Some Historical Jaina Kings and Heros

Author(s): Kamtaprasad Jain
Publisher: Jain Mitra Mandal

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breast of Gandraditya). The king was so much impressed by the devotion and service of the Samanta Nimbadeva that he founded a village in his name, which still exists and to this day is called "Nimba Sirgaon." The brave deeds of Samanta Nimba lived on in the memory of the people until the 16th century, when a Kornarese poet, by name Parshva, sang his life story. "The work is preserved to this day. It is a curious instance of an anachronism, since in it Nimbadeva is made to fight with Bijjal of the Kalachuri dynasty, the usurper of the Chalukya soveriegnty Karanataka. In the battle in which Nimbadeva was fighting single handed our hero was killed; but the effect of his bravery, was so very over-powering, says the 'Nimbadeva-carite, that panic stricken as he was Bijjal thought that all the soldiers of Gandraditya were of his (Nimba's) calibre and decamped the next day early in the morning to the surprise of the Shilahara king. Making allowance for the poets ignorance about the historical facts; one can note with interest the influence of his bravery left in the minds of the people so that it descends to the people of the 16th. century, when it became crystallised into a poem.'
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Nimbadeva was also an ardent lover of religion. He is called in an inscription "an ocean of Right
1. Kundanagar, loc. cit. pp. 10-11.