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GLEANINGS
The history of mediaeval Jainism in southern and western India, especially in the famous Empire of Vijayanagara, can be best understood only when it is studied in relation to the activities of its votaries in the ages preceding the rise of the sons of Sangama. It is essentially the history of a sect which having sought shelter in Karnataka from a grave calamity that had overtaken it in its own home in the north, rose to unrivalled brilliance in the land of its adoption not only in the fields of letters, arts, and religion but in the domain of politics as well. At the hands of writers on Indian history, however, the influence which this profound faith cast in the south has not received the attention it has deserved. Indeed, it may be said without any exaggeration that this subject has been almost ignored by historians of India.
... From a fugitive faith, Jainism became gradually the dominant religion of Karnataka ; and for nearly twelve centuries (second century A.D. till the thirteenth century) it guided the fortunes of some of the most powerful and well-known Karnataka royal families. ...
- from Mediaeval Jainism by B. A. Saletore
1 One finds little about this subject in most of the modern works dealing with me history and religions of India. The Cambridge History of India I, for example, was only a few lines on this question : pp. 166-67. Other writers like Glasenapp,
Jainismus and C. Hayavadana Rao, Mysore Gazetteer (revised edition, angalore), have nothing more than the few well-known facts to relate.
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