Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

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

Page 27

YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
Muñjāryya Vādighanghala Bhatta is known to us from the Kudlur plates of the Ganga king Mārasimha, dated 963 A. D.' Mārasimha was a tributary of Krşņa III, and the grant of a village to Vādighanghala Bhatta by the former forms the subject of the inscription, which eloquently describes the great Jaina teacher's attainments and influence. Vādighanghalε. Bhatta was a distinguished grammarian and seems to have propounded a system of grammar on a sure and sound basis. He was an expert in Lokāyata, Sāṁkhya and Buddhist philosophy as well as Vedic interpretation, a great master of Jaina doctrine, and an eminent poet. He was intimately connected with the Ganga king Būtuga II and Krşņa III and the Rāştrakūta capital. We are told that his faultless and eloquent elucidation of literature (sāhityavidyā) made Ganga-Gāngeya (Būtuga II), 'a cuckoo in the pleasure-garden of learning', his pupil. He was honoured by the learned men of Vallabharāja's capital, who were enlightened by his exposition of all branches of political science, and Vallabharāja seems to be no other than Krsna III who is called Vallabhanarendradeva in the Karhād grant, and Vallabhanarendra and Vallabharāya in Puşpadanta's works. Krşņa is, moreover, explicitly mentioned in the inscription, which declares that Krsnarājadeva, who with his tributaries honoured the master, conquered the regions by his counsel, which was 'sound in relation to the present as well as the future'. It would thus appear that while Somadeva was preoccupied with the theore. tical principles of state-craft, Vādighanghala Bhatta played the role of a practical statesman and acted as a political adviser to the Rāştrakūta emperor. The glory and achievements of the empire seem to have opened new vistas before the thinking men of the age, and persons like Somadeva and Vādighanghala Bhatta, who in other times would probably have confined themselves to literature or speculative thought, took a deep interest in
tters of vital importance to the state. The disruption of the Rāştrakūta empire after Krsna III must have been a rude shock to cultural possibilities in the Dekkan.
1 Text and translation in Annual Report of the Mysore Archeological Department
for 1921. 2 'Perfec
ioner:' lines 159, 160. 3 hari akatafaqur:' line 162. 4 'यस्य निरवद्यसाहित्यविद्याव्याख्याननिपुणधिषणानुगुणवाणीविशेषातिशयच्छात्रीभूतसकलविद्या विनोदारामकलकण्ठगङ्ग
गानेयभूपस्य, सकलराजविद्याप्रतिपादनप्रतिबुद्धबोधप्रबोधितवल्लभराजकटकानेकविद्वज्जनोपजनितपूजाप्रकटीकृतमहिमो.
alacrita cenfetuar', lines 165-169. b वलहणरिंदघरमहयरासु Jasaharacaries 1. 1.33 वल्लहरायमहंतएण Nayalbumāracarrie 1. 3. 2.
तदात्वायतिसुघटमबक्रमोपदेशानुष्ठानवशीकृताखिलदिगङ्गनासरभससंभोगसुखसंपन्नकृष्णराजदेवविहितवचनसंभावनाप्रHaT48HVERT FART ATRT', lines 169-171.