History of Early Ganga Monarchy and Jainism

Author(s): Nagarajaiah Hampa
Publisher: Ankita Pustak

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tles, erected the huge 58' monolithic colossus of Gommateśvara on the larger hill at Sravanabelagola. He served Mārasimha and Rācamalla-IV, two of the Ganga kings, as premire and commander in chief of the army[EC. II (R) 388 (281). 10th cent. p. 247; ibid., Nos 272, 273, 276]. His service to Jainism is multifacet. He caused a basadi on the Candragiri hill at SB, named after him as Cāmundarāya basadi. Aștadikpāla grid in the ceiling has few parallels; Tirthankara in the centre seated on a simhāsana crowned with triple umbrella, flying gandharvas, aerial nymphs, cauri bearers, yakşsa-yaksi, the jinaśāsanadevas - all the details are executed splendindly and it is copied as it is in the ceiling of Kambadahalli Jinālaya. On top of this temple, later Jinadevana, his son, erected a basadi (ibid, No. 150 (121). 10th cent. p. 88]. Cāmundarāya, a protege of the Gangas, was proficient in art and archery. His early life was devoted to wars and his later life to religious activitites. A brave warrior becoming a good writer did not happen all of a sudden. He had the benefit of being guided by the best of the spiritual masters of his time, Ajitasena ācārya and his confrere Nemicandra, bearing the surname SidhāntaCakravarti; The latter encoded the quintessence of Jaina philosophy, for the sake of his lay votary Rāya, and wrote Gommațasāra, a major canonical text in Prakrit. Cāmundarāya was an author in Kannada and Sanskrit. He composed the Trişasti Laksana Mahāpurāņam olim Cāmundarāyapurāņam (C.E. 978). This biography of 63 great men of Jaina purāņic tradition, is a free rendering and an abridged Kannada version of the Sanskrit Mahāpurāņa, a magnum opus in Sanskrit, of Jinasena and Guņabhadra ācāryas (9th century C.E.). Cāritrasāra is another work of Rāya in Sanskrit [Căritrasāra, Manikacandra D.J Granthamala, No. 9, Bombay, 1917).