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latter with marked impartiality aud extended their support to all alike whenever there was a quarrel betiveen different creeds, they took up the role of arbitrators and brought about reconciliation. Merit, wherever found, was appreciated and honored by them
SCHOLARS &C––The Kannada country was the birthplace of Madhvacharya, the leader of the Dvaita school of philosophy, and gave shelter to Sankaracharya and Ramanujacharya, the leaders respectively of the Advaita and Visishtadvaita schools of philosophy It was also the birthplace of Basavesvara, the leader of the Virasaiva sect The monasteries established by these leaders with their numerous branches are to be found all over the country Moreover, the Kannada country was deservedly famous for its pre-eminent scholars, ascetics, philosophers and devotees such as Vidyatirtha, Vidyaranya, Sayanacharva, Sripadaraya, Vyasaraya, Raghavendra-yatı, Anantacharya, Vedanta. chirya, Purandara-dasa, Kanaka-dasa, Siddharama, Tontada Siddhalinga, Nemichandra and Subhachandra
WARRIORS—We learn from the Ceylon chronicles that a Chola king named Elala conquered Ceylon in 205 B C with the help of a Mysore army[೧] In an inscription of the Rashtrakuta king Dantıdurga it is stated that the Karnataka ai mv was capable of defeating the ruler of Kanchi and the Kerala, Pandya and Chola kings [೨]
MERCHANTS--It was stated before that lead coins of the Andhabhritya kings were unearthed near Chitaldrug There were likewise found at the same place a brass coin of the Chinese emperor Han Wu-ti of about the middle of the 2nd century B C and silver coins known as denaru of the Roman emperor Augustus who died in A D. 14 These finds lead us to the not unreasonable inference that the Kannada country had an ancient times commercial intercourse with distant foreign countries In inscriptions and
