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NOTES AND NEWS
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bodies at intervals of several years and at a great cost. “The earliest reference to Mastakabisheka is found in an inscription of 1398, which states that Panditarya had it performed seven times. The poet Panchabana refers to an anointment caused to be performed by one Santavarni in 1612, Anantakavi to another conducted at the expense of Visalaksha-pandita, the Jaina minister of the Mysore King Chikka-Deva-Raja-Odeyar, in 1677 and Santaraja-pandita, to a third caused to be performed by the Mysore King Krishna-Raja-Odeyar III in about 1825."* Reference is made to a similar ceremony performed in 1827, to another in 1871 in the Indian Antiquary and to another still performed in 1887 at the expense of the L.akshmisena Bhattarak of Jain Mutt at Kolhapur who is said to have spent nearly Rs. 30,000 for the purpose. Within recent times there was a grand anointing ceremony on 30th March 1910. It will be interesting to note that on that occssion an aerial post was tried by one Mr. G. F. Edwards who sent a message regarding the puja by a homing pigeon which was received by the Madras Mail Office within 3 hours 40 minutes details of which we find in the Jaina Gazette, Vol. VI, No. 6.
After a lapse of a decade and a half a very grand Mahamastakabhisheka was performed on the 15th of March 1925. Months before this date a Puja Committee had been formed with His Holiness the Charukirti Panditarya-Varya Swamigal of the Jain Mutt at Sravana Belgola as President (see plate 17) and Mr. M. L. Vardhamaniah of Mysore as the Secretary (see plate 18). Bulletins were caused to be issued in various vernaculars and circulated all over India to give the widest publicity possible about the then impending great and religious function of the Jains. With great self-sacrifice, Mr. M. L. Vardhamaniah, the energetic and . indefatigable Secretary of the Puja Committee, toured all over India visiting the important Jain centres, to invite the Jain Samaj and to make the necessary arrangements for the success of the festival. The news of the Mahamastakabisheka ceremony of Sri Gommatesvara was welcomed with a thrill of joy all over the Jaina world and the one common talk of the Jains early this year was about their intending pilgrimage to Sravana Belgola.
* Inscriptions at Sravana Belgola by R. Narasimhachar. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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