Jainism in Ealy Medieval Karnataka

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

Page 57

Idol Worship and Tantrism
39
Construction of temples and installation of Jina images therein increased in the 11th-12th centuries. Epigraphic evidence shows that princes and people alike erected numerous Jaina temples and granted land for various acts of worship in Jaina temples, which were open to all irrespective of caste and creed. The Jaina women of Karnataka expressed their deep devotion for Jainism by erecting a number of new basadis and cndowing them with rich gifts. In 1047, Akkadevi is said to have granted land for meeting the cost of plastering the broken monastery of the Gonada-Bedangi Jinālaya at Vikramapura in the Bijapur district and for the supply of scent, incense and lamp. Another woman, who figures prominently in the record of the 12th century, was Pocikabbe, 4 the mother of Ganga-Rāja. She is said to have erected numerous Jaina temples at Śravaņa-Belgola and many other holy places. In 1123 Sāntaladevī, the queen of the Hoysaļa king Vişnuvardhana, built the Savatigandhavārņa temple at Bélgoļa and granted the village Mottenavile to her preceptor for providing regular worship. In a record of the last quarter of the 12th century, Haryyale, a woman belonging to the middle class of Karnataka society, is said to have advised her son to build Jaina temple for obtaining boundless merit.& The above examples show clearly what interest both the kings and their subjects took in building Jaina temples in Karnataka during the 11th-12th centuries,
Commenting upon the prevalent modes of Jaina worship, Professor Bhattacharya observes that the Jainas in optional caseś keep an image in their houses and do not undergo the 1. EC, vii, Sk, 136, A.D. 1068, p. 103 ; MAR, 1927 A D. 1062, p. 43 ;
EC. iv, Ag. 90, A.D. 1079, p. 263 ; EC, vit, Ng. 40, AD. 1087, pp. 146-5; EC, Y, Cn 143, A.D. 1094, p. 190; EC. iv: Ng. 19, A.D. 1118,
p. 116. 2. ET, xvi, A.D. 1053, p. 57; EC, vii, SK. 124, A.D. 1077, p. 9G; EC,
vi, Cm. 160, A.D. 1103, p. 57; MAR, 1939, p. 194; EC. iv, Ng, A.D.
1142, p. 138. 3. El. xvii, p. 123. 4. EC, 1, SB 118, P. 48-9. 5. Ibid. SB 132, p. 60 6. EC, vii, TP. 93, p. 60 7. BC, Bhattacharya. Jaina Iconography, p. 21.