Amoghavarsha

Amoghavarsha Nrupatunga (c. 800–878), also known as Amoghavarsha I, was the Rashtrakuta emperor from 814 until his death in 878. He is considered by many historians to be the greatest emperor of the Rashtrakuta dynasty. His reign of 64 years is one of the longest precisely dated monarchical reigns on record. Many Kannada and Sanskrit scholars prospered during his rule, including the great Indian Jain mathematician Mahaviracharya who wrote the Ganita-sara-samgraha, Shakatayan and Srivijaya (a Jain Kannada language theorist), as well as Jain Monks like Acharya Jinasena and Acharya Virasena, Acharya Gunabhadra.

Amoghavarsha was an accomplished poet and scholar. He wrote (or co-authored) the Kavirajamarga, the earliest extant literary work in Kannada, and Prashnottara Ratnamalika, a religious work in Sanskrit. During his rule he held titles such as Nrupathunga, Atishadhavala, Veeranarayana, Rattamarthanda and Srivallabha. He moved the Rashtrakuta regnal capital from Mayurkhandi in the present-day Bidar district to Manyakheta in the present-day Kalaburagi district in the modern Karnataka state. He is said to have built the imperial capital city to "match that of Lord Indra". The capital city was planned to include elaborately designed buildings for the royalty using the finest of workmanship.

According to the Arab traveller Sulaiman al-Tajir, Amoghavarsha I's empire was one among the four great contemporary empires of the world.

According to the "maṅgalācharaṇa" (auspicious invocation) of Mahaviracharya's "Gaṇita-sāra-saṅgraha", King Amoghavarṣa Nr̥patunga is praised as "a ruler under whom the people are very happy and the land yields abundant grain," with a blessing: "May the kingdom of Jain King Nripatunga Amoghavarsha ever increase far and wide".