Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

Page 22

1. SOMADEVA AND HIS AGE
the north, much of the south also slipped out of Parāntaka's hands. The Cola empire was no more; it had to be built up all over again”.?
It is interesting to note that the Melpāți camp of Krşņa III is mentioned also by Puşpadanta in his Mahāpurāna, a voluminous work in Apabhramśa verse on the lives of the sixty-three heroes (salākrā-puruşas ) of the Jaina faith, commenced in 959 A, D., that is, in the year of the completion of Somadeva's Yasastilaka, and finished in 965 A. D.' in his Mahāpurāna 1. 3
तं कहमि पुराणु पसिद्धणामु सिद्धत्यवरिसि भुवणाहिरामु । उब्बद्धजूड भूभंगमीसु तोडेप्पिणु चोडहो तणउ सीसु। भुवणेकरामु रायाहिरात जहिं अच्छइ तुढिगु महाणुभाउ ।
तं दीणदिण्णधणकणयपयरु महि परिभमंतु मेपाठिणयरु । Puşpadanta means to say that he commenced his Purāņa in the cyclic year Siddhārtha (the same as that mentioned by Somadeva) when the lord of kings', Tudiga, explained in the gloss as Krşņarāja, was in the city of Mepādi, identified in the gloss with Melapātiya-nagara, that is, Melpāți, after having severed the Cola prince's head with the hair tied up'. This is obviously a reference to Rājāditya's death in the battle of Takkolam, the memory of which was still fresh in 959, Puşpadanta describes the town of Melpäţi as 'rolling in festivities', and as a place where presents of money and gold had been given to the poor. It is natural to surmise that Kșşņa III was celebrating his southern victories at Melpātī that year, and the town was in a gay mood on account of the celebrations. The year 959 A. D. was indubitably a year of political and cultural importance in the history of the Dekkan, as it not only saw the consummation of Rāştrakūta hegemony in the south, but the commencement and completion respectively of two monumental works of Indian literature.
Although Somadeva was a contemporary of Kļşņa III, his work was not composed at Mãnyakheta, the Rāştrakūța capital, but at an obscure place called Gangadhārā, which seems to have been the capital of a prince named Vāgarāja, the eldest son of a Calukya chief named Arikesarin, a tributary of Krsnarāja. The Arikesarin mentioned by Somadeva belonged to an obscure
1 2 3
Nilakanta Sastri: The Colas, Vol. I, p. 162. Vaidya : Introduction to Jasaharacariu, p. 20, Poona 1931.
"श्रीकृष्णराजदेवे सति तत्पादपभोपजीविनः..."चालुक्यकुल जन्मनः सामन्तचूडामणेः श्रीमदरिफेसरिणः प्रथमपुत्रस्य भीमदागराजप्रवर्धमानवसुधारायां गङ्गधारायां विनिर्मापितमिदं काव्यमिति । Yatastilaka, Book VIII, part II, p. 419. Ms. A reads Tri. This is omitted altogether in M36. B and c. Mg. B, however, reads a rt, and in Ms. C agitat seems to be corrected into वसुपराया.