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Sumati-Jñana extant, or may be mis-classed in a library of palm-leaf manuscripts. This sometimes occurs. For centuries, it was believed that the Vardhamāna-purāņa of Nāgavarma II, pandit at the court of the Cāļukya Emperor Perma (reigned 1138-1151 AD), was lost, but it was found in the latter part of the twentieth century, misclassed within the cover of an already known work.
It was at the desire of the famous Attimabbe, lady patron of Jainism, literature and the arts, that Ranna wrote his Ajita-purāna in 993 AD. It was from the Cāļukya emperor Taila II (973-997 AD) that Ranna received the title "kavi-cakravarti", or Emperor of poets. Ranna was also a grammarian and lexicographer, and his lexicon, called Rannakandanighantu, is in part still available. Later, after he had married the two ladies Jakki and Sānti, he became the intimate of Emperor Iriwa Bedanga, Satyāśraya (reigned 997-1008 AD), son and successor of Taila, in whose honor he wrote the Cakreśvara-carita, (lost or misclassed) and his famous Gadāyuddha, where Satyāśraya is compared to Bhīma, and many contemporary details are inserted into this account of the final duel between Bhīma and Duryodhana.
Ranna had at least two children, a son named Rāya and a daughter named Attiyabbe or Attimabbe, named after the famous patroness of Jainism. It is by the way interesting to note that sculptural portraits of many of his associates exist: Cāmundarāya appears in relief sculpture on a pillar known as the Tyāgada Brahmadeva pillar, facing the Gommateśvara colossus, but outside its enclosure. Attimabbe appears, hundreds of times, in relief sculptures on the facade of her temple at Lakkundi. And inside the temple, right in front of the altar, there are statues of Taila II and his son Satyāśraya. It is interesting to see that differing fashions for different generations existed already at that time: Taila has a large moustache and long hair flowing down his back; Satyāśraya has no facial hair and is almost shaven-headed.
Ranna seems to have been a very emotional person, and sometimes his verses appear to have no syntax at all: an example is the verse from the Ajita-purāņa numbered here as III, 7, where the grammatical connections between the different words have to be almost supplied by the reader. Another example to show the extreme individuality of Ranna's style is the verse translated here as III, 26, where a metaphor: << the pillar of mind's confusion >>, a simile relating to Jainism: << falling like attachment to the senses >>, are inserted into a verse describing the visual effect of a falling meteor.
My source for this translation is the Ajita-purāņa-sangraha edited by A. R. Mitra and M. H. Krsnayya, published by Attimabbe-prakāśana in Banglore in 1966. This is in itself a partial edition of the Ajita-purāna. My translation is in turn a partial rendering of this partial edition. I have omitted the passages relating to Attimabbe and Ranna's other contemporaries, in spite of their historical interest, and have concentrated on the stories of Ajita-nātha, the second Tīrthankara, and of Sagara, the second Cakravarti or Universal Emperor.
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