________________
134
S. B. DEO
Similar was the case in the south. For we have several inscriptions which describe donations by the settis or merchants and other similar trading and middle classes in the society. SALETORE remarks, “The Jaina leaders showed the practical side of their philosophical teachings by securing the allegiance of the most important section of the middle classes-the Vira Baņajigas and the commercial classes, whose financial aid was of inestimable value for the cause of Anekāntamata."462
The Jainas even went a step further in this attempt of identifying themselves with the local people in various regions. For, as we shall see later on, several Gacchas of the Svetambaras, and numerous samghas and other Church units of the Digambaras were named after place names. The Sandera, Palliväla and other gacchas of the Svetāmbaras, and the Dravida, Kāñcī, Koļuttūra samghas of the Digambaras were named after place-names either in the North or in the South India.
Besides this, the Digambaras adopted the Kannada language as their own and produced a literature which not only showed their zeal but also their wise policy of preaching the people in their own mother-tongue.
With all its liberal-mindedness, royal patronage tended to be fickle and fanatical in some cases. For instance, the rise of sectarianism under the Saivites nourished by royal patronage put the Jainas in a humiliating background as the methods of the Saivites sometimes seemed to be drastic in the spread of their religion.463
Along with this thinning of the ranks of the Jainas due to religious persecution, another factor that brought slackness in their activities was the emergence of wealthy mathas as a result of the showering of lands and other gifts to Jaina establishments. The original standard of non-possession and poverty was set aside, and the preceptors went to the extent of acquiring lands granted to the temples for their own purposes. A single instance in this case is sufficient. For instance, an inscription dated $. 998 records that Śrinandipanditadeva, a Jaina guru, acquired possession of some fields which were under the control of the Jaina establishment called Anesejja-basadi which was built by the younger sister of Călukya Vijayāditya Vallabha. This guru gave fifteen mattaras of land out of the whole to his disciple Singayya.464 Besides this we have several instances in which oil mills, income of the
462. Op. cit., p. 173.
463. Ref. to the Minākşi temple frescoes is already made; see MORAES, op. cit., pp. 253-54, for the account of Ekānta Ramayya under Bijjala, and the gathering storm of Vira-Saivas under Basava.
464. I.A., XVIII, p. 38.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
