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 99

84
MEDIEVAL JAINISM
About king Narasimha III's piety as a Jaina we have evidence in the Parsvanatha basti stone record found at Bastihalli near Halebid. This epigraph dated A.D. 1254 informs us that king Narasimha III having paid a visit to the Vijaya Pārsva basadi at Dorasamudra built by General Boppa, made an offering to the god, saw the former sasana of the basadi and read the genealogy of his line. The king repaired an enclosure to the land presented to the god in the sasana by (his?) brother-in-law Padmi Deva, and made it over to the god of the basadi.1 This temple which king Narasimha now visited was the same temple which king Visņu had visited in A.D. 1133, and about which some interesting details will be mentioned in the next chapter. One year later on February the 25th A.D. 1255, when the king was just fifteen years old, on the occasion of his upanayanam ceremony, certain specified grants were made by him for the same temple, to provide offerings to the god Vijaya Pārsva.2
The spiritual adviser of this king was Maghanandi Siddhanta of the Balātkāra gana. This is gathered from the Bennegudda stone inscription at Halebid dated A.D. 1265, and the Nagara Jinālaya inscription at Sravana Belgola dated A.D. 1282. Of these the former is important because of the many details it contains about the Jaina gurus of the Balātkāra gana attached to the Mula sangha. It enumerates the names of many gurus like Vardhamana and others who were the spiritual leaders of the Hoysala kings, and informs us that Maghanandi was the disciple of Kumudenduyogi. Māghanandi was the author of the four modern säras (abhinava-sara-catuṣṭaya), namely, Siddhantasära, Srāvakācārasāra, Padarthasara, and
1. E. C. V, Bl. 125, p. 84.
2. Ibid., Bl. 126, p. 84.