________________
APRIL, 198 1
B. A. Saletore/Mediaeval Jainism/Karnatak Publishing House/Bombay/ 1958/pp.108-11.
General Camunda was the personification of liberality. It was because of his unparallelled benevolence that his royal master gave him the title of Raya.1 His preceptor was the celebrated Ajitasena about whom we have narrated a few details in the previous pages. This is proved by epigraphs and his own work Camuṇḍarayapurāṇa.2 But he seems to have come under the influence also of Nemicandra Siddhanta Cakravarti. We infer this from Nemicandra's work called Gommaṭasāra in which Camunda Raya has been appreciatively mentioned." Cidananda Kavi, a Kannada author, in his Munivamsabhyudaya (circa A.D. 1680) confirms the fact that Nemicandra Siddhanta was the preceptor of Camunda Raya.4
181
Both the famous Jaina gurus may have been responsible for the uncommon liberality of Camunda Raya. An inscription dated about A.D. 1159, which will be examined in connection with another Jaina general, gives us the importance of Camunda Raya as a devout Jaina, thus-"If it be asked who at the beginning were firm promoters of the Jina dharma-only Raya, the excellent minister of king Racamalla (is the reply)."5
His endowments for the cause of Jainism have earned for him an undying name in the history of India. It was he who caused the colossal image of Gommata to be set up at Sravana Belgola. Inscriptions of the eleventh century A.D. and of later date and the evidence of later Jaina writers confirm this assertion. We are indebted to the late Mr. Narasimhacarya for all details concerning the inscriptional and literary evidence dealing with the setting up of the famous statue of Gommata on the Doddabetta or larger hill at Sravana Belgola. This monolithic statue is about 57 feet high; and the following account of Gommatesvara is given in an inscription found on the left hand side of the dvārapālakas near the same image, and dated about A.D. 1180:
"The honourable and high-souled Bahubali was the son of Puru. Having generously handed over the kingdom of the earth to his elder brother, who, on defeat in a regular hand-to-hand fight, unjustly left off speaking, and, when even the discus thrown by him proved a failure,
1 Kavicarite, I, p. 46
8 Ibid., p. 46.
8
Gommatasara, Karma Kanda, Gatha 966-972; see also E.C., II, Intr., p. 25. 4 E.C., p. 65.
5 Ibid., 345, p. 148.
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