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An attempt tu trace the Source
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The Rájarājapuri mentioned here may refer to a town named in honour of the Cola king Rājarāja I. Inscriptions indicate that the modern Tārācuram was called Rājarajapuram.1 Tārācuram is a village near Kumbakonam. The Siva temple which is in that village is referred to as Rājarājeccuram. 2 The architecture of this temple very much resembles the architecture of the great temple at Tanjore, which was built by Rajaraja I. The connection between Rājarăja and Tārācuram is explained by the phrase "Rājarājeccuram'. Again, in the book Kongadesa rā jākkalit has been mentioned that a Cola king who was the son of Parāntaka named a village originally called Kēraiyūr in the Talakād4 district of Mysore state as Rajarājapuram. The other historical facts mentioned here about this Cola king strongly support the conclusion that he was the king Rājarāja I.
Therefore it is possible that the references to 'Kșatracūdāmaņi' and to Rājarajapuri' in the above mentioned stanzas from the Kc. may have been made by the author in an effort to commemorate the ruling sovereign, Rājarāja 1. This would then suggest that Vadibhasimha was a contemporary of Rājarāja J.
The following evidence also contributes to this conclusion regarding the date of Vadibhasimha. Srutasāgara Suri in his commentary on Somadeva's Yasastilaka campu quotes a verse in which Vadiraja and Vädibhasimha are said to be contemporaries and disciples of Somadeva Sūri.
Sa vädirā jo'pi śrisomadevācāryasya śişyaḥ, 'vādibhasimho'pi madiyasişyah
śrivādira jo'pi madiyaśisyah ity uktatvāc ca/5 (That Vādināja also is the disciple of Sri Somadevācārya. Because he says, "Vādibhasimha is also my student. Sri Vādirāja is also my student”.)
The above statement cannot be traced back to the extant works of Somadevasūri : apart from the fact, neither Vadirāja nor Vādibhasimha claimed Somadeva as his guru in any of their works. But, as Handique says, it is not chronologically impossible to prove that Vādirāja and Vādıbhasimha are the disciples of Somadeva. Somadeva's date can be easily decided upon, as it is known that he had completed his campu in A.D. 959.7 The fact that Vădirāja and Vadibhasimha also had lived in the same time is supported by the following evidence. 1 R. P. Sethuppillai, Urum perum, 3rd edition, Madras, 1956, pp. 258, 259. 2 Ibid, p. 259. 3 Kongadesa rājākkal, edited by C. M. Ramachandran Chettiyar, Madras Government Oriental Series,
No. VI, Madras 1950, p. 13. 4 This place still exists, under the name of Talakad, on the left bank of the River Kaveri, about
28 miles to the south east of the city Mysore. J. F. Fleet, "The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts
of the Bombay Presidency". Bombay Gazetteer, 1896, Vol. I, Part II, p. 299. 5 Somadevasüri, Yasastilaka campu, with the commentary of Srutasigara, Kavyamālā edition, No.
70, Bombay 1901, Part I; p. 265. 6 K. K. Handique, Yasastilaka and Indian Culture, Sholapur, 19:9, p. 9. 7 Ibid, p. 2. SC-5
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