Jain Journal 2000 07

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

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JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXV, No. 1 July 2000 the consecration therein of the image of Kunthu Tirthankara by Immadi Bukka Mantrīśvara, son of Baichappa Dandanātha. This dignitary was the disciple of Dhammabhūşaņa Bhattāraka of the Mūla-Sangha. 12
Here it is better to mention that some of general Irugappa's colleagues were also Jainas. In A.D. 1400, the Brahman Kuchi Rāja, was the disciple of Candrakīrtidēva. Mahāpradhāna Göpa Camūpa was another noted Jaina officer in Vijayanagara empire. He was placed in-charge of Nidugal and he described as a full-moon in raising the tide of the ocean of the Jaina-Sangha (Jainēndra-Samayambhūdhivardhana pūrņa-candra), he materially added to the cause of Jainism.13 The inscription of A.D. 1408, refers to, he belonged to a line of charitable Jainas. His father Siriyanna Śrīpati, the lord of Bandhavapura, and a disciple of Sāntīśvara and his father was Gāpa Mahāprabhu, was a governor of Kuppatūr. The same record relates that by the instruction of Jinēndra dharma of his guru Siddhāntadēva, accompanied by numerous lucid comments, Göpana became a good servant of the faith and later on he constructed a Jinālaya at Kuppatūr and made some grants to it.
The another officer Masanahalli Kampana Gouda was the lord of Bayināļ and the disciple of Panditadēva. The record of A.D. 1424 refers to the grant of the village Toțahalli situated in his own Bayināļu for the worship of god Gummațanāthaśvāmi of Belagõļa. 14
We may mention one more official who was Vallabha-rajādeva Mahā-arasu, the grandson of the Mahāmandalēśvara Sripati Rāja, and a son of Rājayyadēva-Mahā-arasu. The solicitude which the Vijayanagara officials felt for Jainism even in the last quarter of the 16th century A.D. is seen in the inscription relaiing to that high official. When Chinnavara Govinda Setti, the son of Gutti Haradare Setti, petitioned in A.D. 1579, to Vallabharājadēva that the mānya lands of the god of Heggara basadi should be maintained, "in order to comply with his petition", Vallabharājadēva made a grant of specific land in the village Heggare for worshipping to the god Jina of the village, situated in Būdihāl -Sime.15
The ministers and generals were constructed numerous basadis and Jainism spread in different parts of the Kingdom. The Pārsvanātha
12. MER - 1935-36, No. 336. 13. Epigraphia Carnatica, Vol. XI. Hr. 28. 14. Epigraphia Carnatica, Vol. IV. Hg. 1. 15. Ibid., Vol. XII, Ci. 22.