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JAINA MEN OF ACTION
149 informs us that Rēcarasa, the eminent councillor of the Kaļacuriya kula, hearing of the steadfastness of the Jaina citizens of Arasiyakere, and their ability to maintain dharma, "taking refuge at the lotus feet of that Ballāļa” (i. e., king Ballāļa II), set up in that city the image of Sahasrakūta Jina, and for the eight kinds of ceremonies of that god, for the livelihood of the priests and servants and repairs of the basadi, obtaining the village of Handarahāļu from king Ballāļa, granted it to his own guru Sāgaranandi Siddhāntadeva of the Desiya gana and the Inguleśvara baļi. We shall see that the city which General Rēcarasa thus adorned with a basadi was a well known Jaina centre.
He also set up in about the same year A. D. 1200 the god śāntinātha at Śravana Belgoļa, and made over the basadi to the same guru mentioned above. From this epigraph we learn that Sāgaranandi Siddhāntadeva, the disciple of śubhacandra Siddhāntadeva was connected with the Sāvanta basadi of Kollāpura which belonged to the same sangha, gaña, and lineage.”
We have had an occasion of mentioning the two brothers Bharata and Bāhubali who had taken service under the king Ballāļa.
Būci Rāja was another well known Jaina general of the same ruler Ballāļa II. He was the Great Minister for Peace and War, skilled in both Kannada and Sanskrit, and he could compose poetry in both the languages. On the coronation of the king in A. D. 1173, Būci Rāja erected the Trikūta Jīnālaya in Māļikali in Sigenād, and granted that village itself for the worship, offerings, and gifts of that temple. His guru is mentioned as Vasupūjya Siddhāntadeva, the
1. E. C. V, Ak. 77, pp. 140-141. 2. Ibid., II, 380, p. 164.