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An attempt to trace the Source
(How could not men experiencing sweet pleasure, praise that noble chief of sages, Cintamani, who composed [for use in every house, the Cintamani, which contains fine thoughts on virtue, wealth, pleasure and salvation?)
(Only śrivarddhadeva [who was] the crest-jewel of poets [and] the author of at poem called Culamani, which is worthy of study, has performed [sufficient] pious deeds [in former births] for earning fame.)1
These stanzas are preceded by a reference to sage Kumārasena and followed by a reference to Mahejvara and Akalanka. Reference to the historical facts known about the Jaina teachers of this period throws some light on the dates of Kumārasena and Akalanka. The Harivamsa Puraṇa of Jinasena Punnata which is known to have been completed in A.D. 7839 gives a geneology of teachers which iucludes Kumarasena, Virasena, and Jinasena. Vira-ena is the well-known author of the commentaries Dhavala, Mahādhavala, and Jayadhavala. The date on which he completed the Dhavala has been ascertained by Jyoti Prasad Jain as A D. 780. His Jayadhavala, left unfinished by him, was completed in A.D. 8375 by his disciple, Jinasena, who is also well known as the author of Adipurana. Thus we can with reasonable certainty assign the date of Viresena to the end of the 8th Century A.D. The Mulgund inscription (A.D. 902-03)6 states that Virasena was the senior pupil of Kumarasena. This would place Kumārasena also in the later part of the 8th Century A.D. These dates are also confirmed by the reference made by Vidyanandi to Virasena's recent demise and his statement that he was helped by Kumarasena's advice in the composition of Astasahasri. Vidyanandi has already been noted as the contemporary of the Ragrakūta king, Dhruva (A.D. 780-792).
Akalanka is said to have been the contemporary of the Rastrakūta king Kṛṣṇa I (A.D. 756-775).8 He is reported by the Mallisena Prasasti to have defeated the Buddhists in argument at the court of Himagstala in Kanci in A.D. 778(Šaka 700), He is also referred to and quoted by Virasena and praised in the Harivamsapuraṇa. Akalanka's colleague Puspasena10 is said to have had a disciple called Vimalacandra who appears to have lived towards the end of the 8th Century A.D.11 All this evidence would place Akalanka also in the period around the later half of the 8th Century A.D.
1 Translated by E. Hultzsch, Ibid, p. 200.
2 Jyoti Prasad Jain, op. cit. p. 42.
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3 Harivamsapuraṇa, edited by Pannalal Jain, Varanasi, 1962, 1 : 38, 39, 40.
4 Jyoti Prasad Jain, op. cit. p. 187.
5 Ibid, p. 187.
6 Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XIII, pp. 190 ff.
7 Jyoti Prasad Jain, op. cit. p. 199.
8 E. Hultzsch, Epigraphia Indica, Vol. III, pp. 186, 187.
9 Ibid, pp. 186, 187.
10 Ibid, Śravana Belgola Epitaph of Mallisena v. 24. p. 192, 11 M. S. Ramaswami Ayyangar and B. S. Rao, p. 88.
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