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Religious Rituals and Practices of the Karnataka Jainas
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the gift of the Veennclkarani village for the Uranür Arhat temple and one fourth of the karşapanas of the external customs for Perur Evānia digale's Arhat temple on the advicc of Vijayakirti in the 5th century. Another record of the same king records the gift of house at the village Pulliura for the Jaina monks of the Yāvanjka sangha in the 6th century. In the 7th century, Vinayāditya gifted a village at the request of Dhurvadevācārya of the Mūlasangha and Devagana,3 The Īcvādi stone inscription refers to the donation of money in cash and some wet-fields to Candra-Siddhāntadeva, a Jaina tcacher of the Digambara sect in the 10th century. In the 13th-12th centuries, many Jaina ladies of Karnataka gained prominence by making generous donation of the four gifts of food, mcdicine, shelter and Icarning. Cattaladevi,s Lakşmimati, Pacikabbc,? Demiyakkas and Pampadevi are depicted in the epigraphs as following the Jaina concept of dana.
Although the traditional Jaina concept of the four gifts of protection, food, medicine, and sacred lore and writing materials continued to hold ground during the early incdicval age, the gift of protection (abhayadana) was considered to be the liighest gift.10 Apparently protection was emphasised in view of the political instability and frequent transfers of lands and villages from one hand to the other in early medieval times. A Jaina was therefore exhorted to offer protection to all living creatures without which the ritual of charity became meaningless. The next in importance was the gift of food, Thc Jainas were asked to feed the Jaina monks, according to the ninefold method of hospitality, consisting of reception, offering of a high scat, washing of their feet, adoration,
1. EC, X, MIL. 72, p. 172. 2. ALAR, 1938, p. 80. 3. BAI, iv, no. 4, p. 3. 4. MAR, 1923, p. 115. 3. EC, viji, Nr. 35, pp. 137-8 6. Ibid. ii, SB. 127, p. 50. 7. Ibid. SB 118, pp. 43-0. S. Ibid. SB 120, pp, 56-7. 9. Ibid. viii, Nr. 37, pp. 141-2 10. Masastilaka, pt. ii, BK. viii, p. 401,
