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among them. Even while writing in Sanskrit, there was often a conscious attempt to simplify the language for the sake of wider understanding. 1 The Jaina monks played an active role in the affairs of the community and seem to have been responsible for the spread of learning to all strata of society, notably to the more numerous mercantile class of Vaisyas. In Gujarat where Jainism was influential, the Jainas of the merchant class played a prominent role in the middle ages. A Jaina called Vira was the superintendent and minister of four successive rulers Mūlarāja, Câmundaraya, Vallabharāya and Durlabharāya at the close of the tenth century and beginning of the eleventh. His son Vimala was the commander-in-chief of Bhima I and built in 1031 the famous Vimalavasahi temple with its exquisite marble carvings on Mt. Abu. In the thirteenth century Vastupāla served the Vaghela rulers as their chief-minister, and was a great patron of learning.s
0.3 Aside from these instances of political power, commerce was the exclusive forte of the Jainas, and much of the economic activity in the Gujarat-Rajasthan-Delhi region was controlled by them. The members of the Srimāla caste, in particular, specialised in minting and money exchange. Even after the political domination of northern India by Muslims from the thirteenth century onwards, the expertise represented by this banker's caste was utilised by the Mulsim rulers of Delhi in their minting operations, just as Hindu and Jaina masons and stonecarvers were employed in the construction of the Islamic monuments. The Kbaratara chronicle mentions a number of wealthy Jainas from Delhi who enjoyed good relations with the rulers.
1.0 Notable among these members of the Śrimāla caste in the employment of the Sultans of Delhi is Thakkura Pheru who stands out as a writer on a wide range of scientific subjects in popular speech. He wrote six scientific works : Vāstusāra on architecture and iconography, Jyotişasāra on astrology and astronomy, Ratnaparikşā on gemmology,
For instance, Jinapala, writing at Delhi in 1248, explains at the end of his Kharataragacchalamkara-Yugapradhanacarya-Gurvavali, a chronicle of the pontiffs of the Kharatara sect, how he simplified Sanskrit in this work in order that even children can understand it. Henceforth this chronicle will be referred to as the Kharatara chronicle. It was published in the Kharataragaccha-Brhadgurvavali,
ed. Muni Jinavijaya, Bombay 1966. Jinapala's statement occurs on p. 50. 2 Cf. U. P. Shah, “Coinage of Early Calukyas of Anhillavada-Patna", Journal of
the Numismatic Society of India, XVI. 2 (1954), pp. 239-42. 3 Cf. B. J. Sandesera, Literary Circle of Mahamat ya Vastupala, Bombay 1953. 4 Cf. John Scott Deyell, Living Without Silver : The Monetary History of Early Medieval India (The University of Wisconsin-Madison Ph. D. Thesis, 1982. Xerography in 1983 by the University Microfilms International, Ann Arbour), Vol. I, p. 339.
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