Medieval Jainism

SR No.: 011082
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhasker Anand Saletore
Publisher: Karnataka Publishing House
Total Pages: 448
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 27 MB

Page 390

JAINA CELEBRITIES IN THE VIJAYANAGARA EMPIRE 371 the two former Jaina gurus elsewhere.1 Here it is sufficient to narrate the following—That Simhakīrti, the great logician, is said to have won renown in the court of the Delhi Sultan Mahamuda who was no other than Sultan Muhammad Tuglāg. The Jina teacher is expressly stated to have defeated the company of Bauddha and other speakers in the Delhi court. This success of Simhakīrti in the court of the Delhi Sultan may be placed between A.D. 1326 and A.D. 1337.
His successor Visaiakīrti was a foremost orator, learned in the Parāgama, chief head of the Balātkāra gana, a great ascetic, and one who received reverence from Sikandara Suritrāņa. He defeated great speakers in the assembly of Virūpākşa Rāya, the ruler of Vidyānagara, for which he received a certificate of victory (jayapatra) which was regarded by the learned and even by kings to be an original śāsana of Sarasvati. In the city of Devappa Dandanātha called Araga, he expounded the great Jina dharma, and won reverence even from the Brahmans.
The last named general was the son of the Vijayanagara viceroy Śrīgirinātha. Devappa Daņqanātha was the viceroy of Āraga from A.D. 1463 till at least A.D. 1468. The Vijayanagara ruler mentioned in the Padmāvatī basti record was no other than Virūpākşa Rāya, who reigned from A.D. 1467 till A.D. 1478. And Sikandara Suritrāna in whose court Visalakirti defeated opponents was Sultan Sikandar Sūr, who ruled for a brief period in A.D. 1554. Visalakirti seems to have have lived to a ripe old age of eighty years.2
But Visalakirti's immediate disciple Vidyānanda, better known by his celebrated name of Vādi Vidyānanda, was the greatest figure in the history of Jainism in the Vijayanagara
1. Saletore, K. H. R. IV. pp. 77-86. 2. Ibid, pp. 79-81.