Jainism in Ealy Medieval Karnataka

Author(s): Ram Bhushan Prasad Singh
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 21

Introduction
3
or Vijayanagara in the Bellary district; to the north of these places Hangal, Lakşameśvara, Lakkundi and Gadag in the Dharwar district; farther to the north, Belgaum, Saundatti, Manoli, and Konnur in the Belgaum district; and still more to the north Terdal in the Sangali state, Bijapur itself and doubtless Kalyāņi. Kuntala had thus by the twelfth century come to denote the whole of Karnata country.
The above analysis becomes more clear from the study of the Jaina records which register gifts for the Jaina monks and monasteries in Karnataka during the 5th-12th centuries. They reveal that Karnataka comprised a greater part of the state of Mysore in the early medieval period. The present study, however, excludes South-Kanara and Bidar districts of Mysore which contain no important Jaina vestiges of the 5th-12th centuries A.D.
The Jainas constitute today a small community in Mysore, but they command great respect among the Kannadiga people. The reasons for this may not be quite clear unless we know something of the past history of Jainism in that area, especially the processes through which the Jainas dominated the political and cultural life of Karnataka between the 5th and the 12th century A.D.
Some work has been done on the history of Jainism in Mysore till the 5th century A.D., and something is also known about the period from c. A.D. 1000. But not much has been published on the period from c. A.D. 500 to A D. 1200, when Jainism played an important role in Mysore and in the whole of Peninsular India, Śravana-Belgola served as the epicentre of this faith.
Although Jainism made valuable contributions.to the life of medieval Karnataka, it has not so far received the attention it deserves. Ayyangar, Saletore, Sharma, Deo and Desai have written the history of Jainism in the Peninsular India," but 1. Wilks, cited in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccon, pts. I-VI, p. 42.
2.
Ramaswami Ayyanger and B. Seshagiri Rao, Studies in South Indian Jainism, Madras, 1922.
B. A. Saletore, Medieval Jainism, Karnataka Publishing House, Bombay, 1938.
$. R. Sharma, Jainism and Karnataka Culture, Dharwar, 1940.
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