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Society and Religions / 63
iii. In relation to the structure of the Jaina society, there is a
reference in the epigraph under discussion, that a grant was made to the basadi for providing food to the 'Catur varna sangha samudāya'. In the context of Nirgrantha church, the phrase 'Catur-varņa' does not denote the usual sense of the four castes of Brahmana, Kşatriya, Vaisya and Sūdra; the four sections of the Jaina 'sangha-samudaya' are the monk, the nun, the layman, and the lay-woman; to put it in the accepted terminology, the śramaņa, the āryika, the śrāvaka and śrāvikā constitute the catur-varņa-sangha samudāya (Sh. 57. 1118 and Sh. 64. 1132).
An extraordinary feature of the endowment (Sh. 64. 1132) is that the grant was made not only for the food to the Jains but also to all the four castes, the catus-Samaya (ibid, line: 93), an example of the catholicity of Jaina society. There are instances of the tanks named after frairs as savanana kere '(the tank of the Jaina monk) (Sh. 57. 1118) and the villages named after them as 'Savanana-biļilu-grāma' (EC. VIII-ii (BLR) Soraba. 223. 1139. pp. 97-98).
Jaina faith in the township of Bannikere, Tattekere, Nellavatti, Nidige, Purulegrāma, Harakere flourished; it made its prominent mark on the Mandalihill. Inscriptions endorse profusely the fact that Jainism received tremendous fillip, rose to greater heights during the period of 11th and 12th centuries and it was still the religion of a large section of the people. Apart from the rulers, some of the local assemblies caused the construction of new basadis and renovation of old ones. Pattada basadi - 'the crown temple'
The concept of a Pattadabasadi is exclusively a Jaina invention, particularly in Karnataka. Some major dynasties like the Gangas, the Raştrakūtas, the Bādāmi Cālukyas, the Kadambas, the Hoysaļas and some minor dynasties like the Sāntaras, MandaliGangas, the Cengā!vas had their Pattada-basadis, also called Patta-Jinālayas - 'the crown temples' of those royal houses. The ruling king and the palace would invariably possess a Pattada
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