Jainism and Karnataka Culture

Author(s): S R Sharma
Publisher: Karnataka Historical Research Society Dharwar

Page 44

JAINISM AND KARNATAKA CULTURE
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Yet it is supposed on the authority of a few Brahmanical grants that the next few rulers reverted to the Brahmanical creed, 56 But the two grants upon which this inference is based are according to Rice both open to doubt." *7 The fact that Harivarma or any other made grants to the Brāhmaṇas is not sufficient to prove that there was any change in the royal faith. Avinīta who seems to have had for his preceptor the Jaina Acārya Vijayakīrti, made a grant to the Brāhmaṇas. Likewise, Konguņi II, son of Madhava II, also made a grant to the Brahmaņas.58 But from this to deduce that towards the end of the fifth century Sanskrit and Brāhmanical influences were gradually displacing old Kannada, and with it the power of the Jainas, its most eminent professors, and that by the time of Konguni II this Brahmanical influence was paramount in the state, seems quite unwarrantable. The curious differences in the string of descriptive phrases attached to each king," which Rice points to in these inscriptions, are not, in our opinion, to be set down merely as " errors on the part of the composer or transcribers." They are more fundamental and deliberate. The way the Brahmanical composers twist and clothe facts gives room for great suspicions. For instance, it is well known that the Hoysalas up to the time of Viṣṇuvardhana's defection were mostly Jainas. But the Arsikere grant of Vīra Ballāļa gives no clue as to this, although it gives a long descriptive genealogy of the donor's predecessors. On the other hand, it specially writes, "Victorious be the great Hoysala family which is like a bee in the lotus-like feet of Vişņu." 60
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56 Cf. Krishna Rao, op. cit. pp. 29-34 Ramaswami Aiyangår, Studies in S. I. J. I, p. 116.
57 Rice, Mysore Gazetteer I, p. 812. "
58 Rice, Two Kongu or Chera Grants, Ind, Ant. V, pp. 133 ff; Sheshagiri Rao, Studies in S, I. J. II, p. 88; Mysore Archaeological Report, 1924, pp. 69, 80-81.
59 Rice, Two Kongu Chera Grants Ind. Ant. V, pp. 133–37. 60 Mysore Archaelogical Report 1923, p. 35.