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Somadeva Suri

Jaina scholar and Sanskrit author of the 10th century. He finished his prose-and-verse romance, the Yasastilaka, in 959 at Gangadhara, in the territory of Vagaraja, eldest son of the Chalukya king Arikesari II of Vemulavada. At that time the Rashtrakuta Krishna III was in camp at Melpati. In 966 Arikesari III gave him a village for the Subhadhama Jinalaya, a Jaina temple at Vemulavada.

Somadeva Suri was a Jaina monk and scholar who wrote in Sanskrit under the Chalukyas of Vemulavada. His Yasastilaka is dated, and its closing words name the Chalukya prince in whose town it was finished. A copper-plate grant of 966 names him as the donee (receiver of the gift) of a Vemulavada king.12

The Yasastilaka and its date

R. G. Bhandarkar summarised the end of the work in 1896.1 He wrote that it was finished on the 13th of Chaitra, when 881 years of the Saka era had passed, in the cyclic year Siddharthin.1 It was finished “during the reign of a feudatory of Krishnarajadeva” (a ruler under Krishnarajadeva).1 This overlord is described as reigning gloriously after subduing the Pandyas, Simhala, the Cholas and the Cheras.1 The year corresponds to 959.3

The colophon (closing note) printed in the Kavyamala edition of 1903 gives more detail. In a close rendering, it says that the poem was completed while Sri Krishnarajadeva was ruling from his flourishing camp at Melpati.4 Krishnarajadeva had subdued the Pandya, Simhala, Chola, Chera and other kings.4 The poem was completed at Gangadhara, which prospered under Sri Vagaraja.4

Vagaraja was the first son of Sri Arikesarin, a great feudatory of the Chalukya family.4 Arikesarin had won the five great sounds (a mark of high rank) and was called Samanta-chudamani (jewel among feudatories).4

Peter Peterson first described the manuscript.5 He wrote that it was composed “at the court of one of his feudatories, the eldest son of a Chalukya prince named Arikesari”. He added that this Arikesari was the patron of the Kannada poet Pampa. Bhandarkar added that the overlord must be the Rashtrakuta Krishna III.56

Peterson praised the work as “a lively picture of India at a time when the Buddhist, Jain and Brahminical religions were still engaged in a contest”.6 This contest, he wrote, “drew towards it the attention, and well-nigh absorbed the intellectual energies of all thinking men”.6

N. Venkataramanayya wrote in 1953 that Somadeva finished the Yasastilaka while his patron Vagaraja was in camp with Krishna III at Melpadi, in the Chittoor district.78 The printed colophon puts Krishna at Melpati but the completion of the poem at Gangadhara. The editors of The Early History of the Deccan (1960) read it the same way, and named the prince “Badyaga”.49

None of the sources read for this page identifies Gangadhara, but a village called Gangadharam lies near the Bommala Gutta at Kurikyal, where Pampa’s brother left his inscription.1011 Venkataramanayya noted the Jaina sculptures scattered in its fields, but he did not connect the village with the colophon.1011

The Parbhani plates

The Parbhani plates of Arikesari III are dated 966.1213 They give the village of Kuttumvritti-Vanikatupalu to Somadeva for the upkeep of the Subhadhama Jinalaya (Jaina temple).1213 The king’s father had built this temple at Vemulavada.1213

The plates give Somadeva’s line of teachers.1314 In the Gauda sangha (Jaina order) lived the sage Yasodeva, and his pupil was Nemideva.1314 Of Nemideva’s many pupils, Somadeva was the most famous.1314 The plates name him as the author of the Yasodharacharita (the Yasastilaka) and the Syadvadopanishad.1314 They say that many kings honoured him.1314 Venkataramanayya thought he was probably the head of that temple.7

A short inscription is carved on the pedestal of a Jaina image at the Rajarajesvara temple at Vemulavada. It says that King Baddega built a Jinalaya for his teacher, Somadeva of the Gauda sangha. Venkataramanayya thought this was probably the Subhadhama Jinalaya.15 Epigraphia Telanganica (2023) lists the same record under the earlier Baddega Soladaganda.16

His writings

Venkataramanayya suggested that Somadeva was a north Indian Jaina who came to Vemulavada in Vagaraja’s time.7 Besides the Yasastilaka, he wrote a treatise on statecraft, the Nitivakyamrita.7 Venkataramanayya found the Yasastilaka heavy and over-ornate, but full of information for the historian of medieval India.7

Footnotes

  1. R. G. Bhandarkar, “Early History of the Dekkan”, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency I, pt. II (1896), p. 207 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. N. Venkataramanayya, The Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  3. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 9 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  4. Somadeva Suri, Yasastilaka, ed. Pandit Sivadatta and Kasinath Pandurang Parab, Part II (Kavyamala 70, 1903), p. 419, closing colophon (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Translated for this page. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  5. B. Lewis Rice (ed.), The Pampa Bharata or Vikramarjuna Vijaya of Pampa (1898), introduction, p. 4, quoting P. Peterson’s report on Sanskrit manuscripts in the Bombay Circle (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Rice, Pampa Bharata (1898), introduction, p. 5, quoting Peterson and R. G. Bhandarkar (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 46 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 41 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  9. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and N. Venkataramanayya, “The Chalukyas of Vemulavada”, appendix C to “The Eastern Chalukyas”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), p. 511. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  10. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 394, reprinting N. Venkataramanayya, “The Kurkiyala Inscription of Jinavallabha”, Epigraphia Andhrica II (1974). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  11. Epigraphia Telanganica I (2023), p. 399, reprinting Venkataramanayya (1974). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  12. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 42 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  13. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 93, introduction to the Parabhani plates (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  14. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 94 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  15. Venkataramanayya, Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (1953), p. 45, note 75 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩

  16. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica I: Pre-Kakatiya Telangana (2023), p. 87, No. 1. Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

References

Sources (6)
  1. Somadeva Suri; ed. Pandit Sivadatta and Kasinath Pandurang Parab, The Yasastilaka of Somadeva Suri, with the commentary of Srutadeva Suri, Part II (Kavyamala 70) (opens in a new tab), Tukaram Javaji, Nirnaya-Sagar Press, Bombay, 1903, pp. 419. Closing colophon, Sanskrit; translated for this page. [Public domain]
  2. J. F. Fleet, R. G. Bhandarkar and others (Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency), Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part II: History of the Konkan, Dakhan and Southern Maratha Country (opens in a new tab), Government Central Press, Bombay, 1896, pp. 207. R. G. Bhandarkar, Early History of the Dekkan. [Public domain]
  3. B. Lewis Rice (ed.), The Pampa Bharata or Vikramarjuna Vijaya of Pampa: An Ancient Jaina Poem of 941 A.D. (Bibliotheca Carnatica) (opens in a new tab), Mysore Government Central Press, Bangalore, 1898, pp. 4–6. Quoting P. Peterson and R. G. Bhandarkar. [Public domain]
  4. N. Venkataramanayya, The Chalukyas of L(V)emulavada (opens in a new tab), The Archaeological Department, Government of Hyderabad (printed at the G. S. Press, Madras), 1953, pp. 2–3, 9, 42, 45–46, 93–94. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  5. Gajjala Vasanta Lakshmi (ed.); Gautam Pingle (gen. ed.), Epigraphia Telanganica, Vol. 1: Pre-Kakatiya Telangana, Dr MCR Human Resource Development Institute, Government of Telangana, 2023, pp. 87, 394, 399. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  6. G. Yazdani (ed.); Part VII by K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and N. Venkataramanayya, The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII-XI, Oxford University Press, London, published under the authority of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1960, pp. 511. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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