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Jainism in Early Medieval Karnataka
twelve kinds of penance by the nun Anantamati-ganti in consonance with the prescribed rules.1 Similar other inscriptions at Śravana-Belgola refer to the value of penance,2 meditation3 and fasting. Besides mentioning the traditional twelve kinds of Jaina austerities, an epigraph of the 8th century refers to a monk who practised severe penance for one hundred and eight years; this was as difficult as walking on the sharp edge of a sword or on fire or passing over the great fangs of a cobra.4
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Of the six kinds of external penance, fasting appears to be the most important not only for the Jaina monks but also for the householders. The teachers of Digambara school evolved an elaborate system of fasting and prescribed various rules for its proper observance by the Jainas of Karnataka in early medieval times. Pujyapada states that fast secures selfcontrol, exterminates attachment, and acquires spíritual knowledge.5
Jinasena Sūri in his Harivamsapurāṇa gives us a detailed and exhaustive list of fasts to be undertaken regularly. He enumerates as many as forty types of fasts, differing in regard to method and duration. He refers first to the sarvatobhadraupavasa, which lasts one hundred days. The Jainas are asked to observe fast for one day in the beginning and then gradually increase its duration from one to two, three, four and five days. The next type of fasting is called the vasantabhadra upavāsa, lasting for thirtyfive days. In course of this fast one is allowed to take a meal on the sixth, thirteenth, twenty first, thirtieth and fortieth day. In the Ekavali form of fasting, one fasts for twenty four days; each fast is followed by a meal day. According to Jinasena Sūri, one attains the merits of god Jinendra or becomes a Jaina prophet, if a Jaina practises Jinendragunasampatti fast, which continues for a hundred and twenty six days, every
1. EC. ii. SB. 23, p.6.; ibid, SB. 98, p.43.
2. Ibid. SB 75, p. 40; ibid. SB. 76, 41,
3. Ibid. SB. 81, p. 41.
4. EC, ii, SB. 22, pp. 5-6.
5. Sanarthasiddhi, ch. 3, v. 19, p. 438.
6. Harivam'sapuraṛa, pt. ii, ch. 34, vv, 52-5, pp. 434-5
7. Ibid. v. 56, p. 435.
8.
Ibid. v. 07, p. 436.
