Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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The Unknown Pilgrims
joined.226 We recapture here, but in another age and in other places, the atmosphere which must have prevailed at Mathurā. In Karņāțaka, if the śrāvikās of princely and noble circles enjoyed great riches, their generosity in regards to all that had to do with cultic practice, that is, temples, sanctuaries, images, as well as to religion and culture in general, was proportionate to these riches. This generosity was the expression of ardent faith and devotion. The example is often given of Attimabbe of the Xth century, the daughter of General Malappa and wife of Nāgadeva, who had a thousand copies made of the Säntipurāna, the work in Kannada of the writer and poet Poona, and had erected one thousand similar munificence in lesser degrees. To give another example, we may mention Jakkiyabbe of the same epoch, a widow and capable administrator of her principality, who not only showed zeal for the dharma but also, when afflicted with an illness, dccided to abandon her goods and her own body by undertaking the vow of saṁlekhanā, the Absolute Fast.227 Later, at the beginning of the XIIth century, when the influence of the dharma was on the decline, Queen Sāntaladevi, wife of King Vişnuvardhana, displayed a lavish generosity in gifts in kind, such as food, shelter and books, for the ascetics. She had built at Śravana Belgoļa the temple of Savatigandhavāraṇa, adorned with a statue of Sāntinātha, and offered as a gift to her spiritual master the village of Mottenavile for the benefit of the faithful. Then she too ended her life by the Great
Fast 228
This short introduction to the social environment in which for a period of about ten centuries the āryikās lived their lives would be incomplete if one omitted to mention several factors: the Jaina samgha was undeniably, and throughout the whole of the South, directed by Digambara munis, of whom the most outstanding were
226 Cf. Saletore, 1938, ch. V "Women as defenders of the faith."
227 Ibid., pp. 155-156; cf. P 567 ff.
228 At Śivaganga in 1131; ibid., pp. 166-167.