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80 / The Later Gangas : Mandali-Thousand
the personality of the laics; its votaries were complimentary to each other and evidently depended on each other. Basadis were of the people, by the people and for the people. Basadis also worked as schools, primarily imparting the scriptural knowledge, initiation to religious texts. As repository of religious books written on palm-leaf, basadis invariably contained stabhandaras, a collection of basic religious books and books on grammar, logic, philosophy, lexicography, medicine, poetics, prosody and poetry. For the lay votaries, they were also centres of attraction. Occasionally dramatic performances, based on the theme of the Jaina purāņas were also arranged in the premises. Pañca Kalyāņa episode, a popular theme, was enacted accompanied by dance and music. Dancing performances were more frequent, and a portion of the grants made over to the basadi was year marked to dances. Thus, basadis were also repositories of fine arts. Even the worship in the Caityālaya was not limited to the well-being of the individual alone. It had a range of wider scope of wishing safety for all people, with the king being god fearing, Indra blessing with seasonal rains, devoid of all diseases, famine and pestilence.
Therefore, basadi was an institution in itself and was more than a mere place of worship. Basadis even today, in and around the proper Shimoga town are found the traces of the predominence of Nirgrantha faith. A number of surrounding villages clearly betray the Jainistic features of iconography, coupled with the presence of more and more Jaina images. Jainism had entered Shimoga vicinity as early as in the early centuries of C.E., that go to confirm the verocity of the statements in Kallurgudda charter. Some of the ancient sculptures, Jaina images, pillars and pedestals and other antiquities, collected from the ruins in this area of the Mandali nādu, are neatly housed in the old palace museum at Shimoga. These excellent masterpieces of architecture are the silent witness to the heyday of dominence of Jainism under the Gangas of Mandali-1000.
It is note worthy that the modern Shimoga city, a district head-quarters, was a small village, with 'SIMOGE' as its early name, included in the Mandalinād principlaity. The present Anjaneya (Hanumanta) temple, in the centre of Shimoga proper
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