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JAINISM IN LITERARY TIADITION. 105
The paucity• of scholars, interested in academic studies as such is so great, and, the enthusiasm for seeking out the Historical •origins of things soʻrare in South India that as yet it has not been possible to wiscover any literature earlier than the 8th century in Kannada, or earlier than the 11th century in Andhra (Telugu). Nanne Coda, the author of a Kavyam called “ Kumārasambhavam", on a plan other than that of Kālidāsa, says definitely “ that the cultivation of Telugu poetry was first encouraged by the Chalukyas from Satyāsraya in the Andhra country." Though I cannot agree with the learned' editor of this work in claiming it to be earlier than Nannaya's Mahābhārata (for reasons a full statement of which had best he .reserved for the present), I take it, that the reference to Satyāsraya quoted above is to Pulakési II whose conquest of the Andhra country, among others, is celebrated in the Aihole Inscription of Ravikārti, a Jaina poet who claims to have equalled the fame of Bharavi and Kālidāsa. This inscription is dated S. S. 556 (described as the year 3735 since the Bharta War), i.e., 23rd July A.D. 613.. Rāja Rāja Narēndra, the patron of the Telugu Mahābhāratamn of Nanna yabhatta, traces his descent from the brother of this Pulakēsi II, called Vishama Siddhi or Kubjavishnuvardhana who was left as the sovereign of the newly 'conquered Andhra kingdom and founded the Eastern Chalukya line of Vengi. This. Rāja Rāja Narēndra was crowned King in
"This reading howevor is doubtful.
