Jainism and Karnataka Culture

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

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JAINISM AND KARNĀTAKA CULTURE medicine under the same ruler.207 Krşņadevarāya himself visited Belgola and is said to have been so much impressed with the beauty of the colossus there that he granted many villages for its upkeep and erected an alms-house near the pond Kalyāņi, in memory of his visit. 708 Devacandra, another Jaina writer, composed his Rājāvali-kathê (of which Mr. E. P. Rice writes, “ It has been of great assistance as a guide to the history of Jaina literature ") under the inspiration of a princess of this royal family, about 1838 A.D;109 and the present ruler of Mysore only acted up to these traditions when he lately attended the anointing ceremony of the colossus of Gommața erected by Cāundarāya, the minister and general of Mārasimha and Rācamalla Ganga.
JAINISM UNDER MINOR RULERS Among the minor rulers of the Western districts of Karnataka there were many patrons of Jainism like the Silāhāras of Kolhāpur and the Rațțas of Saundatti (near Belgaum ). Somadeva, who lived at the court of Bhoja II of the Silāhära dynasty, says that he composed his sabdārņava-candrikā (lit. moon-light to the ocean of words ), in Saka 1127, in the Tribhuvana-Tilaka-Jinālaya built by Gandarāditya. 910 The colophon of the work reads :
स्वस्ति श्री कोल्लापुरवा जुरिकामहास्थाने युधिष्ठिरावतार महामंडलेश्वर गंडरादित्येव निर्मापित त्रिभुवनतिलक जिनालये श्रीमत् परमेष्टि श्रीनेमिनाथ
श्रीपादपवाराधित बलेन वादीभवज्रांकुश श्रीविशाल कीर्तिदेव वैतस्यतः etc. . It is clear, therefore, that Gandarāditya as well as Bhoja or Vira Bhojadeva II were both patrons of Jainism. Vijayāditya of the same family also appears to have made a grant to a Jaina temple in Sam. 1065 or 1143 A. D. 21
207 Mysore Archaeological Report, 1921, p. 33. 208 Ep. Car. II, SB 249; Of Ibid. Introp., p. 66. 209 Rice (E.P.), Kanarese Literature, p. 93. 210 Rom. Gaz. I ii, p. 549; cf. Ibid., p. 255. 211 Cf. Hirālāl, Catalogue of MSS. in C. P. and Berar, Introd., p. xxxii. 213 Cf. Ep. Ind. III, pp. 207-9, 11.