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JAINISM AND KARNATAKA CULTURE
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as Mr. J. C. Powys has observed in his The Meaning of Culture, "The sceret of culture is to have a knowledge of relative values in this world."
Another trait widely illustrated in numerous inscriptions in Karnāțaka is that of the spirit of self-abnegation and sacrifice. Sati-stones and Virgals proclaim this in all parts of Karnataka. Though this was a feature of the spirit of the age, the example of hundreds of Jainas voluntarily subjecting themselves to the tribulations of sallekhana and samadhi-marana must indibutably have heartened the votaries of even other sects to do the same, as a matter of honour.
The Jaina basadis were repositories of learning, in all branches, even as their arctitecture afforded a stimulous to artistic expression and their yatis set examples of high spiritual striving. It was Jaina writers who insisted on maintaining the purity of the Kannada language. “Several of the Jaina authors,” observes Mr. R. Narasimhāchār, "who were adyocates of purism in the use of Kannada, have condemned the practice of introducing unnecessary Sanskrit words into Kannada composition. They denounce the practice as the mark of an imperfect education. Nayasena compares it to the mixing of ghee and oil; and Nāgavarma, to the stringing of pearls along with pepper-corns. There were even a few authors who attempted to write works in Kannada without the admixture of Sanskrit words in order to show that the use of Sanskrit is not indispensable for Kannada composition."'4 It was a Jaina poet Nộpatunga who gave us the true extent of Karnāțaka as the country stretching from the Godāvari to the Käveri.
ಕಾವೇರಿಯಿಂದಮಾಗ ದಾವರಿವರರ್ಮಿ ನಾರದಾಕನ್ನಡದೊಳ್ | ಭಾವಿಸಿದ ಜನಪದಂ ವಸು
ಧಾವಳಯವಿಲೀನವಿಷಯವಿಶದವಿಶೇಷಂ 3 It was again the same Nịpatunga (or Amoghavarşa I, 815-77 A Karnātnkas. Ravi-Charitre, Introd., I. p. xvii,
