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Origin and Growth of Jaina Monachism in Karnataka
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Among the Ratta chiefs, the maha samanta Pythvirāma appears to be a devout Jaina. He erected a Jaina temple at Saundatti in the Belgaum district of Mysore in the reign of Kșşņa II and allotted eighteen nivartanas of land situated at four different places to it. He was a lay disciple of Indrakirtisvamı of the Mailāpatirtha and Kāreya gana.? In 980 Sāntivarma, who served the Cālukya king of Kalyana, Taila II, gave one hundred and fifty nivartanes of land to the Jaina temple that he had built at Saundatti. His mother, Nijiyabbe, also granted one hundred and fifty nivartanas of cultivable land to the same Jaina temple.2 The practice of extending patronage to Jaina establishments persisted among the princes of the Ratta family in the 11th-12th centuries. In 1048 the mahasamanta Ajka, who probably belonged to some other branch of the family than that of Prthvirāma, made a gift of land to a Jaina temple, Kārtavirya II renewed the grant of land made by Prthvírāma in the 10th century; his wife also made suitable provisions for the promotion of the Jaina saith. In 1098 Kankakaira II, who was the elder brother of Kārtavírya II, donatcd land to his teacher Kankaprabha Siddhāntadeva, who was well-versed in the Jaina philosophy. Moreover, an epigraph from Saundatti, dated 1228,6 described Lakşmideva II as the disciple of the famous Jaina teacher Municandra, who took active interest in consolidating the Ratta power in the 13th century.
Ladies belonging to the family of chiefs and nobles showed equal enthusiasm for the construction and upkeep of the Jaina monasteries. The most important of them was Kandācı, the wife of the feudatory chief Paramagüla, who lived during the reign of the Ganga king Śrīpurusa. In 776 she built the Lokatilaka Jinalaya which was endowed with the village Poņņalli included in the Nirgunda country.? Candi
1. JBBRAS, X, op. 194f7; BKI, iv, no. 13, p. 11. 2. Ibid, pp 204ff. 3. Ibid, x, pp. 172-3, cited in P.B. Desai, op. cit, p. 114. 4. Ibid. 6. BKI, iv, no 62, p. 75. 6. JBBRAS, X, pp. 200ff. 7. EC, iv, Ng. 85, pp. 134-5.
