Jain Journal 1999 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 17

NAGARAJAIAH: VIKRAMĀDITYA VI AND JAINISM
3.5 Perhaps, historians are right in their conjecture, but yet the matter is open to further investigation. Whatever be the affiliation of his mother to a Jaina family, the fact that he spent his early formative period in the company of Jaina subordinates and in the Jaina environment, is well-illustrated by supportive inscriptional records. An epigraph of almost of the same period has registered that the prince, with the birudas of the Gangas, was ruling the southern provinces of his kingdom, along with the Santalige-Thousand. 13
3.6 The Santalige-1000 and Mandali-1000 were the two adjacent and co-eval principalities. The Santaras who ruled Santalige-Thousand division, from seventh to sixteenth cent. with Hombuja as their capital, were Jains ab initio. Similarly the Gangas who ruled Mandali-Thousand division, from fourth to fourteenth cent. were also Jains ab origine to ad finem. Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Vikramadityadeva spent most of his time during 1055 and 1076, the two decades before succeeding to the throne, at Banavāsi, Talavanapura, Mandali, Hombuja, Bandalike, Balligave and other places which were also known as Jaina settlements and Jaina pilgrimage centres. The period he spent as mahamandaleśvara was also a kumāra-kāla, the days of youth i.e. when he was a prince, during which he built a Cāļukya Ganga Permānaḍi Jinālaya, a Jaina temple at Balligave, then his residence, named after him. 14
4.1 The Jaina charters are full of praise for his religious activities, for his efforts towards the propagation of the Jaina faith; his services for the cause of Jainism were of the magnitude of the Gangas for the spread of the faith. Ajitasena was the dejure head of the Jaina Church. It may be argued with cogency that Vikki had closer and constant contacts with Jaina ascetics and monasteries.
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4.2 The following details furnish an exhaustive and comprehensive information about the status of Jaina church during the reign of Vikramaditya. Without repeating the statement-'When Vikramaditya was ruling' at the beginning of each of the inscription's discussion, only the information pertaining to Jainism will be furnished.'
4.3 A much damaged inscription, of the period of Tribhuvanamalla Permmaḍideva, is dated saka 968 equivalent to 1044,15 but the charter seems to have wrongly recorded the date, since the date falls during the first year of the reign of Trailokyamalla Someśvara-1 (1043-68), the father of Vikramaditya-VI. Therefore, it is not possible to account
13. EC. VII-i SK 83. 1058. Aḍaganți-grāma (Sh. dt, Sk. tk) pp. 169-70. 14. ibid., SK. 124. 1077. pp. 231-34; lines: 40-41.
15. SII. XI-ii. 120. 1044 (?) Yeri-Byāteri (Gadag dt Ron tk) pp. 136-138.