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Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
31
SAMADHIMARAŅA IN EARLY
KARNATAKA
According to the teneis laid down in Jaina Scriptures a soul can attain liberation only in the human state of existence and that too by terminating such existence through the religious vow generally known as Samādhimarana. Out of seventeen possible kinds of death, oly three are commendable : 1) Panditamarana 2) Balapanditamarana and 3) Panditapanditamarana. Of these, the Panditamarana has tree varieties : (i) Bhaktaprātyakhyāna (ii) Ingins and (iii) Prāyopagamana. Ingins and Prayopagamana are too hard to be practised by men in this Kali age for physical reasons. Hence Śivaraya (Śivakoļyachärya) has presented at great length in his Bhagavati Aradhanā (Mularadhana)' the description of the Bhaktapratyakhyāna, the right practising of which would lead liberable souls to final bliss.
Karnataka was a very favourite region of the Jaina saith of the Digambara Order for more than a thousand years from the early centuries of the Christian era. Hence, naturally, the practice of Samadhimarana, the singularly prescribed religious final vow for the Bhavyas (the liberable ones) for attaining eternal bliss has left in this region, in the course of the long period, numerous and varied traces in traditions like the well-known
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