Jain Journal 2000 01

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

Page 43

HAMPANA: THE HOYSALAS AND JAINISM
groups of Jaina ascetics, in hearing holy Jina purāņas, the general Hulla passed his time every day.
155
Of course, there were many more Jaina luminaries, both men and women, who perpetuated the cause of Jaina church. Jainism reached its apogee in the epoch making era of Biṭṭidēva alias Visnuvardhana. The popular legend that Biṭṭidēva was later converted to Vaisnava faith is not borne out by historical evidence. Pleased by Gangaraja's accomplishments, he granted the village Parama which was in turn made over to the Jaina temple. Boppa, Ecirāja, Pōcikabbe, Laksmi and others, all of Gangaraja's house, made very many grants and gifts to the subsistence and sway of Jinadharma.
A conspicuous charcteristic factor of the complex age is followers of different faiths and creeds living under a common roof. Members of one and the same family following seperate religion but yet living under the same ceiling was common in this period. Husband and wife belonging to diverse caste or sect did not divorce but made a happy couple and a harmonious living. The royal couple with divergent faiths, Visņu and paṭṭa-mahisi, crown queen, Santaladēvi, had set a model to the kingdom in this respect. Her mother was a staunch Jaina and her father a Śaiva.
Viṣṇuvardhana had several queen consorts, but foremost of them being Santaladevi, 'crest jewel of perfect faith in the teachings of the Jina'. (samyaktva-cūḍāmaṇi).Śāntaladēvi, an ardent follower of Jinadharma, contributed to the flourishing state of Syādvādamata. She founded Jaina shrines at Śravanabelagola and other places. Epigraphs of the time have eulogised her commitment to Jainism and acclaimed her many acts of merit. Prabhācandra Siddhäntadeva, scholar teacher and patriarch of Jaina diocese was her preceptor. Jinadharma-parāyaṇe, zealously intent on following Jaina faith, Śāntaladēvi, crowning glory of the Hoysala kingdom, accepted the vow of sallekhana at Sivagange, a Jaina place of pilgrim, and courted ritual death by abstinence, from taking food, gracefully departing from the profane world in the year 1131. An epigraph of Śravanabelagola has framed her picture with silver lining of extoling her virtues in the follwing words:
Śāntaladevi was a rampart to the Jaina faith, delighting in the narration of stories related to Jainism, taking pleasure in gifts of food, shelter, medicine and learning, pure in Jaina faith, kind to the blessed, having the head purified by the fragrant water of Jina.
After the celebrated Danacintamani Attimabbe, it is the illustrious