Jainism and Karnataka Culture

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

Page 68

JAINISM AND KARNATAKA CULTURE
ment; and the Brahmeswara temple at Āblür is said to contain sculptures representing Ramayya in the act of performing a miracle." It is possible,” says Dr. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, " that Rāmayya preceded the two Basayas hy a short period as Bijjaļa is referred to in the record, not as a ruler, but only as a governor or Mahāmandaleswara.” 160 The Canna Basava Purana gives an account of the miracles performed by this Ekāntada Ramayya.
It is not necessary to trace the course of the Vira-Saiva movement here in detail. It is evident that in the period under review the rise of Vira-Saivism was largely responsible for the decline of Jainism. By it the trading and agricultural classes who were the backbone of Jainism were converted to ViraŚaivism, and Jaina idols were replaced by Saiva ones. 161 The best days of the Jainas in the Deccan were over. 162 It only remains for us to trace the last phase of Jainism under the Hoysaļas and the languishing sequel of its long history. Even the South was not immune from the iconoclastic zeal of the Moslems who followed in the wake of the Yādavas of Devagiri. There is in the fort of Doulatābād a mosque built by Aurangzeb out of the ruins of what appears to have been originally a Jaina temple. The images of Tirthankaras carelessly built into the sides of neighbouring walls bear out this supposition. Since the Kalacūris were the last dynasty in the Deccan of whose patronage of Jainism we have any evidence, it is natural to conclude that these vestiges are a survival of their age.
160 Bbāndārkar, Bom. Goz. I ii, p. 483 n 1. 161 Krishnaswami Aiyangar; Contributions, p. 256. 162 Bhändārkar, Early History of the Dekkan, p. 96. 163 Cf. Ramaswamy. Aiyangar, Studies in South Indian Jainism, 1, p. 118.