Jainism and Karnataka Culture

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

Page 46

18 JAINISM AND KARNATAKA CULTURE of Mārasimha, already referred to, state that "this king cleft open the frontal globes of the lordly elephants of the Ekāntamata with the thunderbolts the arguments based on the scriptures." His son Marula, brother of Mārasimha, too, is referred to in the pet phrase "his mind resembling a bee at the lotus-feet of Jina."60 But the doyen of the family was Mārasimha Ganga. He was a monarch in every sense of the term, and is described in the inscriptions with many a sonorous title like, “SatyavākyaKonguņivarma-Dharmamahārājādhirāja, Ganga-cûdāmaņi, Caladuttaranga, Māndalikatrinetra, Ganga-Vidyadhara, Gangakandarpa, Ganga-vajra and Ganga-simha." All these indicate the respect he commanded in his own life-time as well as his position in the whole dynasty; and he seems to have fully deserved all these appellations. His grant to the Samkhabasadi at Lakşmeswar (near Dhārwār ) speaks of him as one “who was a very jewelled pitcher wherewith to perpetually besprinkle Jinendra;"*0 and in the Kudlūr Plates he is "a bee in the lotus-feet of Jina, who washed out all taints with the water of the daily bath of Jina, who was devoted to the gurus, who was an expert in grammar, logic, philosophy and literature, who was skilful in the management of horses and elephants, and whose good government was the theme of praise of the four castes and orders regulated by his remarkable intellect matured by the investigation of all the Itihāsas and Purāņas.” 71 Such a highly cultured prince, crowned his life with the highest sacrifice a Jaina could offer to his faith, viz. death by Sallekhana or slow starvation. The inscription that records this great event also states that he performed the anointing ceremony of the Rāştrakūta King, Indra III, thereby indicating his political power.Te Hence, it was no morbid
88 Käalur Plates of Mārasimha, Mysore Archaeological Report 1921
p. 22 69 Cf. Ep. Car. II, Introd. pp. 44-7. 70 Fleet, Ind Ant, VII, V. p. 108. 71 Mysore Archaeological Report, 1921, pp. 22-3, 72 Ep. Car. II, SB 59.