Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 7

Author(s): Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

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Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin No. 7
wrote Dhavala, Jayadhavala and Mahādhavala, Jaina Sena sūri Punnāta's Harivarśa Purana, Jinasenasvamin's Jayadhavala, Adi purāna, Gunabhadra's Mahāpurana (last two Chapters only) and Ugrādityas Kalyanakāraka are well known. It is rather surprising to find that many of the Rāştrakūta generals like Bankeya, Srivalaya and Narasimha were staunch Jainas. In a word, under the Rāştrakūtas, Jainism had a career of prosperity for a few centuries alongwith Saiva and Vaishṇava forms of Hindu religion. Some of the kings of Rāştrakūta dynasty were devout Jaina's themselves.
Amoghavarsha Nțipatunga I (814-888 A. D.) had strong leanings towards Jainism which is evidenced by the fact that Jinasena, the author of Adi purana, was his guru.1 Further, Mahāvirāchārya, a Jaina mathematician described him as a follower of Syādvada.2 He also appointed Gunabhadra, a famous Jajna monk and scholar, as tutor to his heir apparent Kțishna. He seems to have also granted land for Jainālaya at the request of his Jaina general Bankesaraya.8 According to A.S. Altekar, Amoghavarsha I often put his yuvarāja or the ministerin-charge of the administration, in order to pass some days in retirement and contemplation, in the company of his Jaina gurus.4 Though there is no recorded evidence to extend Amoghavarsha's reign in the coastal area, the Jaina centre like Rāmatirtham in the Visakhapatnam district and Biccavolu in the East Godāvari district are frequently to have received his patronage. 6
As we have stated above, Bankeya was the Viceroy of Banvāsi and a staunch follower of Jainism. It is known from an inscription at Hemāvatio in the Anantapur district that Bankeya's son Kundate died after Sanyāsana for thirty days. We know from the Konnūs epigraph? that Bańkeya had a son named Kundate who was ruling over Niļugundage twelve division under his father Bankeya in the twentieth regnal year of Amoghavarsha I. Now it is obvious that not only Bankeya but also his son had a great reverence towards Jainism, but both were Jainas, observing the path preached by Jainism.
King Amoghavarsha's son and successor was Krishna II, who was like his father a devout of Jaina. As we know, his education was conducted by Guņabhadra. He himself tells us in the last five chapters of his
1. R. G. Bhandarkar, Early History of Deccan, p. 76. 2. A. S. Altekar; op. cit. p. 88. 3. EI, VI, No. 4.
Rāştrakūtas and their Times, p. 88. 5. S. Gopalakrishna Murthy : Jaina Vestiges in Andhra, Chapter IV.
Studies in Indian Epigraphy, II, pp. 76-80.