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class which loyally served the Jain Ganga kings. Therefore, it suggests that this Jain warrior class, which had spread to the western coastal region in the South, had in fact became the ruling class after the fall of the Gangas and the rise of the another ruling Jain dynasty was founded by Hoysala under the patronage of the Jain monk, Simhanandi, and to the time of Bittivardhana, who later was converted to Vaisnavism by Ramanuja.
This article first appeared in Gurudeva, a Kannada Jain Fortnightly, September 15, 1997, an organ of the Humcha Jain Matha in Karnataka.
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