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MEDIEVAL JAINISM
Jaina general as the "raiser up of the kingdom of Vişņuvardhana Poysala Mahārāja."
His guru was Subhacandradeva, "an ocean of philosophy," disciple of Kukkuṭāsana Maladhärideva of the Pustaka gaccha and the Deśiya gana. This we know from stone records dated about A.D. 1117 and A.D. 1118.1 To his guru, as one of these records relates, Ganga Rāja gave the village of Parama in A.D. 1118, which his son Commander Eci Rāja confirmed in the same year.2 In the capital Dorasamudra itself, as the epigraph on the pedestal of the image in the Parsvanathabasti at Bastihalli in Halebid says, Ganga Rāja caused Jina images to be constructed. It is interesting to observe that in this record he is styled merely Senior Danḍanayaka Gangappayya."
Ganga Rāja was first a loyal soldier and, then, a devout Jaina. In other words, he placed politics before religion. This may be proved by the following epigraphs which give us the standard of morality which he set before himself, and which tell us how after doing his duty as a gallant soldier, he asked his royal master for a reward. In an inscription commemorating his death, we have the seven standards of morality which Ganga Rāja had placed before himself. "To be false in speech, one; to show fear in battle, two; to be addicted to others' wives, three; to give up refugees, four; to leave suppliants unsatisfied, five; to forsake those to whom he is bound, six; to live in treachery to his lord, seven ;-these are the seven narakas (hells), says Ganga." The great Jaina general made the opposite of every one of these seven narakas his principle of life.
1. E. C. II, 73, 74, pp. 39-40.
2. Ibid., 73, p. 40.
3. M. A. R. for 1911, p. 44.
4. E. C. V, Bl. 124, pp. 82-83.
