Jain Journal 1999 01

SR No.: 520133
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 42
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

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JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXIII, No. 3 January 1999 Subhacandradeva-munipa, a pupil of Maladhārideva-yamina, who was a moon to the ocean of mūla-sangha, Desiga-gaņa, was the chiefprecepter of the Bannikere Caityālaya. He had mastered the agama literature and had the cognomen Siddhanta-ratnākara, an ocean to the dogmas of Jaina philosophy. Once he wanted to read the DhavalaTikā to teach his pupil but the palm-leaf text was not there in the Śrutabhāņdāra of the Bannikere Caityālaya. Devamati alias Ratideviyakka (the mother-in-law of Mandali-nād rulerand the mother of Ganga-mahādevi the crown-queen of Bhujabala-GangaPermmadideva-II (1103-1118) a lady votary of the ascetic SubhacandraSiddhāntadeva, had camped at Bannikere Jina-Pārsva temple for the ceremony of the concluding religious observance of Śrutapañcami-vrata the restraint (vow) of the 'scripture-fifth', a Jaina holiday; It is observed usually during the month of June, commemorating the day of C.E. 150, when the adept Bhūtabali and Puşpadanta first put the āgamas scriptures into written form. During the observance of the vow Śrutapañcami, literature of the scriptural material symbolising the sacred teachings of the Jinas, will be donated to the temple or monk or nun.
Knowing the need and excellence of Dhavalā-Țika, Deviyakka immediately arranged for copying the text. Because of the timely action of Deviyakka, a copy of Viresena-ācāry's Dhavalā-Țikā was made available not only to her revered guru Subhacandra-Siddhānta-Deva but the whole world, because that is the one and only copy available to this day.
Deviyakka (Devamathi, Demati, Ratidevi), daughter of Nāgale, sister of both Dandanāyakitti Lakkale (wife of general Gangarāja) and Būcirāja, was wife of Cāmunda, a royal merchant. She has been compared to Sitā. Laksmi and sāsana-devatā, attendant goddess of Jina, the agent in giving protection to the supreme Jaina faith. Devamati, liberal in giving food to the people, refuged to the frightened; good medicine to those rendered miserable by disease and science and the āgamas (scriptural knowledge) to those desirous of learning them. Devamati, at the close of her life, fixed her mind on the Arhat, according to the prescribed rites for all lay votaries, observed sallekhanā at Śravanabelgoļa on the Candragiri hill, and entered the high heaven as if her own home in C.E. 1120. Her elder sister Lakkale alias Lakshmi, set up a nisidhi stone pillar, resembling a column of victory, for that excellent lady Demavati (EC. II (R) 158 (129) 1120. pp. 99-101).
Whoever conceived the act of sästra-dāna, their dream is realised, there is no other holier or greater sastra-dana ever known than this in the annals of Jainism.