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Society and Religions / 57
Krāņur-gana and Meşa-pāşāņa-gaccha, a cohort of the frairs and nuns, made grants of land (specified) for the sthānpatis, chief of the diocese. Nokkayya also made a specific and seperate grant of wet-land of a mattar to the local drummer (parekārs) and the potterer (Kumbāras). The Ganga king Permmādideva did not lag behind, he also once again endowed the shop tax and customs dues to the basadi of Tattekere. Jainism
Jainism olim anekānta-mata, a comprehensive religion, as opposed to ekāntamata, being one sided, is an organic religion. It adopted, accomodated and assimilated so many alien thought, art, architecture, gods and godesss, so far as these adoptations agree with the primary dictum of Jainism, the universal nonviolence. The religious history of the Mandalinādu opens, continues and concludes with the predominent prevalence of the anekāntamata, as a state and public creed. A good number of inscriptions have irrefutably established the existence of a highly developed and secured Jaina society.
The most significant Kallūrugudda charter of the NanniyaGanga Bhujabala Permmāạideva, registers not only the grants made to but also narrates in a nut-shell the religious history of the Mandali Ganga family. The Harakere epigraph of C.E. 1060 is also a trend setter of their basic religious attitude to be followed by their successors.
'Tirtha', a technical term so often used, needs a clarification; the following quotation will connotate the term tirtha - "in Jainism a place of pilgrimage is called tirtha (literally, a ford), because it helps the aspirant in crossing over the ocean of samsāra which is full of pain and misery, and in attaining liberation from the other wise unending round of births and deaths. The primary aim of Jaina pilgrimage is, therefore, spiritual edification. It is probably why the Jainas have generally selected for the sites of their tirthakşetras mountain tops, seculded dales for jungle-clearings, far from habitations and the hubbub materialism - ridden wordly life, in the midst of captivating natural scenery and peaceful surround
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