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THE JAINA ANTIQUARY.
I Vol. V
gold, grain, and herds of cows, buffaloes, goats, and sheep" 3 In other words, when that celebrated Śrutakevalı selected this southern centre for his sangha, he made it clear to the world that the Jainas were going to a region that was economically as we would put it in our own days – self-sufficient and prosperous.
This economic importance Sravana Belgöļa maintained almost till own days, and lost it. as many hundreds of centres have lost, because of the altered nature of the times and the onrush of the forces of the modern world.
An examination of the epigraphs ranging from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries A. D will reveal that the commercial life of the people of Sravana Belgola was marked by some special features. The most noticeable of these was their intense devoutness and patriotism. In early and mediaeval times in the South, we note that patriotism went hand in hand with religion The merchants of Śravana Belgola were no exception to this rule We shall prove this from examples relating to all the merchants of that place, and not to particular individuals. In about A. D 1175, for example, all the merchants of Sravana Belgola, as is related in two stone
2 Epigraphia Carnatica, ibid, 1, p 1 My assertion that this great SrutaLcvalı was the first Ganadhara (Mediaeval Jainism, p. 3) has been called one of iny 'conspicuous crrors of facts' by a critic in the New Indian Antiquary for Mfrv. 1939. p 132 I relied for this detail concerning the great Bhadrabāhu on Dr R. Shama Sastry's Mysore Archaological Report for 1923, p 26, para 67 It 13 a great pity that I did not cite this reference which, from the point of view of thcabore critic, may also have been a “conspicuous error of fact " On reading the review of my work sent in advance to me for insertion in the NI 1, 1 wrote atonce to Dr R Shama Satry and received from him the followin nove in his letter dated 9th rebruary 1939:"Bhadrabihu was not Jells a Giandhara. but out of respect he was spoken of as a Ganadhara in Home Journal manuscripts and I copied it, I do not now remember the no of the manuscrip!.. " It will be evident to the reader, therefore, that in corraitons "a conspicuous error of fact," I have sinned in excellent comply rls repa'da the other "conspicuous crrors of facts" noted by the critic. I have denle with them clsewhere, “in the interest of Jaina studies" BAS,
