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the original congregation, including the Yāpaniya sangha and made Mūlasangha an invincible force in the south: Śri Kondakunda nāmā=bhūn=mūla-sanghā=graņi gani [EC. Vol. II (R) No. 79 (69) C. 12th Cent. C.E. P. 55]
Thus, Mülasangha maintained its hold for more than a thousand years.
Among the congregations of the Nirgranta creed, the best is Mülasangha, the original congregation; in that Mūlasangha the zenith is the Desiga gaņa (Sh. 97. 1113. p. 108). This statement of an inscription of the Mandlinād has crystalised the long tradition of Jaina monachism. Müla sangha superseded some of the early and later branches. Băcaladevi, queen consort of Mandali ruler, was a disciple of this Desiga gana; she caused to be made a celebrated Caityālaya, an ornament to the Mandali-Thousand with Arhat Pārsva as the mūla-nāyaka and dedicated it to the tradition of Mülasangha Desiga gana.
Of the different sects of Jainism, Digambara the sky-clad, Śvetāmbara the white-clad and the Yāpaniya are the earliest. The inscriptions discussed in this monograph, however, do not contain any reference to the Svētambara sect, only Digambara sect held faster to the ground. Though Yāpaniya sangha school of Jainism was different from the other two, but nearer to the former, had its sway in Karnataka between 4th and 14th centuries. But Yāpaniya lost its identity in the pre-medieval period itself, and it merged with the original congregation, in and around tenth and 11th centuries, even though its nomenclature continued to survive for some more centuries. Yāpaniya sangha had its own gaņas and gacchas (Nagarajaiah, Hampa: Candrakode : 1997-C: 15256).
The early Gangas were followers and great supporters of Yāpaniya school, because the very promoter of the Ganga kingdom, adept Simhanandi was himself a Yāpaniya ācārya. Of the many ganas and gacchas, Kāņār gaņa, Sūrasta gana and Meşa Pāşāņa gaccha, three of the cohorts of friars of the Yāpaniya
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