Jinamanjari 2000 04 No 21

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 39

Mangarasa, born in a ksatriya family, was a prolific writer and has authored five poems, experimenting both satpadi and sāngatya metres that easily fit in for Desikävyas. Nēmi Jinēša-sangati olim Hariuamśa is a longer poem with nearly seven thousand verses. Mangarasa is facile in his narrative style.
Sāļva is a better poet of the period. He has attempted different varieties of șatpadi meter in the same work. Neminātha-carite, his long poem is popularly known as Sāļua-Bhārata, since the work also deals with the popular theme of Bharata along with the story of Neminātha, the 22nd Tirthankara. Critics have hailed his poetic ability in rendering home his theme with winsome and cheerful verses. He was patronized by the Sāļuvas, a minor dynasty.
Ratnākaravarņi was the best and greatest of all the poets of this era; second only to Pampa and Kumāravyāsa. He has authored three Satakas, a centum, poem containing one hundred stanzas each, one Epic of ten thousand stanzas, and about three hundred songs in praise of god and his infinite compassion. Trilokasāra is an account of Jaina cosmogony, Ratnakara-Sataka andAparajitasataka treat philosophy, morals and renunciation, Bharatēša-Vaibhaua gives the story of emperor Bharata, and Annana-păda deals with songs of the saint. His verses and songs are still current among the Jainas.
Vidyānanda, who had the cognomen of abhinavavādi (new debater) was a crest jewel of perfect faith, covered the period with glory. He was revered everywhere, from the emperor to the common subject. B.A. Saletore has explained the achievements accomplished by Vidyānanda: one of the greatest scholars of the sixteenth century.... won distinction in about C.E. 1530 ... he performed great works of merit. His work in the field of learning was equally great and lasting. No Jaina guru in the Vijayanagara age had a more glorious list of achievements than Vidyānanda... It is remarkable that [he] should have mastered tenets of Christianity, and met and defeated an expounder of that faith in a viceregal city of Vijayanagara. With him we come to the climax in the history of Jaina theology and oratory.
His significant contribution to put the Jaina faith at the top has been vividly recorded in the contemporary inscriptions. As he was worshipped by kings Krishnadevarāya and Acyutarāya, his considerable success were equally impressive at the various provincial and imperial courts. de
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Anila Verghese, Reliogious Traditions at Vijayanagara As Revealed Through its Momuments, New Delhi 1995. 2. Anna L. Dallapiccola and A. Varghese, Sculpture at Vijayanagara: Iconography and Style, New Delhi 1998. 3. B.R. Gopal, Vijayanagara Inscriptions, Vol. I and II, 1985 and Vol. III, 1990. 4.B.A. Saletore, Medieval Jainism, Bombay 1938. 5. N. Saraswati Nanaiah, The Position of Women During Vijayanagara Empire, Mysore. 6.K.M. Suresh, Sculptural Art of Hampi, Mysore 1998. 7. H.T. Talwar, Jaina Art and Architecture ar Vijayanagara, Mysore 1997. 8. Nagarajiah Hampa, Sätararu-Ondu Adhyana, Hombuja 1997.
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