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other works in the Jñana- bhandaras, the Jaina monasteries also acted as veritable centres of learning. The social organisation of Jainism, particularly with its four-fold gift (caturvidhya-dāna), fulfilled manifold needs of the society intellectual, philanthraphic, humanitarian, moral etc., Moreover the Jaina teachers, ever moving from place to place, carried on a kind of mass-education through their regular sermons with interesting moralising tales and illustrations. Inscriptional and literary references are cloquent about the fact that, these teachers, some of which are noted as moving tirtha (Jamgama-tirtha), incessantly worked to eradicate the seven vices (sapta-vyasana) and other bad elements from the masses and to cultivate among them social virtues like compassion, truth, honesty, charity etc. The percolative process and cumulative effect of all such efforts and endeavours through centuries, it may be observed, have made the people of Karnataka to be (comparatively more) tolerent, accommodative and vegetarian even to this day.
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