Appendix 1 - Somadeva and the Pratihara court of Kanauj

A statement in the anonymous commentary on Somadeva's Nitivakyamrta appears to show that the work was written at the instance of a king of Kanauj named Mahendradeva or Mahendrapaladeva. The commentator, whose date is unknown, mentions, however, a Jaina monk named Municandra as the author of Nitivakyamrta, and describes Somadeva as his guru. This is, of course, contrary to all that we know about Somadeva who gives a lot of information about himself in the colophons to his Yasastilaka and Nitivakyamrta. It has recently been suggested by some scholars that Somadeva may have passed some time at Kanauj: and, during his sojourn there, he was encouraged to compose his Nitivakyamrta by Mahendrapala I (circa 893-907 A. D.), or more probably, by Mahendrapala II who is known to have reigned about the middle of the tenth century A. D. The Partabgarh Inscription of the time of Mahendrapala II of Kanauj is, for instance, dated Samvat 1003 = 946 A. D. (Ep. Ind. Vol. XIV, pp. 176-188). But the supposed connection of Somadeva with the Pratihara court of Kanauj can hardly be accepted as a historical fact; as, unlike his association with the Deccan, it is mentioned neither in the colophons to his works nor in the Parbhani inscription. It has been suggested that the following acrostic verse found at the end of the first Book of Yasastilaka contains a veiled reference to Mahendrapala. so'yamasarpitayasa mahendramaramanyadhih | deyatte samtatanandam vastvabhistam jinadhipah || The first letter of each foot of the verse gives, when combined, the name Somadeva, as pointed out in Srutasagara's commentary; but it is extremely doubtful if there is any word-play in the expression mahendramaramanya-dhih leading to the surmise that Mahendramara stands for Mahendradeva or Mahendrapala. Apart from the fact that the commentator is not aware of any such word-play, Mahendramara might very well refer to Mahendradeva, the elder brother of Somadeva, mentioned in the colophon to his Nitivakyamrta. As pointed out elsewhere, Yasodeva, the spiritual ancestor of Somadeva, belonged to the Devasamgha, according to the latter's own statement in Yasastilaka; but, according to the Parbhani inscription, Yasodeva belonged to the Gaudasamgha. It is possible that the Gaudasamgha was connected with the Gauda country, and Yasodeva may have lived there. It is also possible that the Gaudasamgha, after its migration from Bengal, came to be known as 1 ' tatha svaguroh somadevasya ca pranamapurvakam sastrasya tatkartrtvam khyapayitum municandrabhidhanah ksapanakatratadhartta nitivakyamrtakartta ' 2 See Raghavan in New Indian Antiquary, Vol. VI, p. 67 and Pt. Premi in Jaina Siddhanta Bhaskara, vol. XI, p. 90.

Devasamgha, the name used by Somadeva. The latter was, however, the disciple not of Yasodeva, but of Nemideva; and except for one solitary reference, he alone is mentioned in all the colophons occurring in Yasastilaka and Nitivakyamrta. In the present state of our knowledge, there is no reason to suppose that Somadeva or his teacher Nemideva ever migrated from the Gauda country to Kanauj and thence to the Deccan. The term Gauda in Gaudasamgha is not without some ambiguity. In south Kanara there is a class of people called Gaudas who are farmers and labourers and speak the Tulu or the Kannada language. They are generally Hindus, but some are Jainas. They have a regular system of village government: in every village, for instance, there are two head-men, the GramaGauda and the Vattu or Gottu Gauda. It will not be surprising if the Gaudasamgha has something to do with the Gaudas. In the latter sense the word is derived from gavunda (farmer) changing into gaunda or gauda; and it also means the village headman. 6 The Mysore inscriptions throw further light on the Gaudas. Some of the petty rulers of Mysore belonged to the Gauda caste or community. The Avati-nad Prabhus were Gaudas or farmers of the Morasu-wokkal tribe, who came from the east in the fifteenth century and settled in the Avati village'; and 'their immediate descendants became founders of the modern States in eastern Mysore which were subordinate to Vijayanagar. The leader of the Avati Prabhus was named Baire-Gauda, and the inscriptions of the family date from 1428 to 1792.' The Yelahanka-nad Prabhu is mentioned even in 1367, but the inscriptions of this Avati branch run from 1599 to 1713. They generally had the name Kempe-Gauda, after the most celebrated of the line. He founded Bangalore in 1537.' The Sugatur-nad Prabhus had the name Tamme-Gauda, and their territory included a great part of the Kolar District. Other references to the Gaudas are also found in the Mysore inscriptions. 'In 1417, when a Gauda, who had gone to visit the local governor, fell down dead in his presence, a sort of inquest was held on the body and it was sent back to his home. This was under Vijayanagar rule.' Under Mughal rule 'we find in 1720 a regular magisterial process in the case of a Gauda whose village had been taken It is also notepossession of by some one else during his absence abroad." worthy that an inscription of 1027 A. D. refers to an agrahara named Gauda with its 32,000 Brahmana residents, believed to be an exaggeration." All this shows that the name Gauda was quite familiar in the Kanarese country both in the territorial and vocational sense as indicated above; and it is therefore difficult to rule out the possibility of the Gaudasamgha being originally connected with a village settlement of the Gaudas. We cannot, of course, be certain on the point, but the fact that Somadeva lived and worked in the Deccan inclines us to look for the home of his Samgha in 1 Sturrock: South Canara quoted in Sharma: Jainism and Karnataka Culture, p. 158. See also Mahalingam: Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar, pp. 80, 236. 2 Rice: Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions. pp. 165, 176, 177. 3 Saletore: Ancient Karnataka, Vol. I, 332. 59

Karnataka rather than in Bengal. It is true that we hear of Jaina Samghas in Bengal even at a later date, though the term Samgha has a slightly different sense here. The Jaina writer Balacandra Suri, for example, tells us, in his Vasantavilasa-mahakarya (10. 25), that Samghapatis from Lata, Gauda, Vanga and other places came to join Vastupala, the famous minister of Gujarat, in his grandiose pilgrimage to Satrunjaya and Girnar in 1220 A. D. But, so far as Somadeva is concerned, his supposed migration from Bengal does not appear to be supported by any reliable evidence so far discovered.