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WOMEN AS DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH
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lady of the Nirgunda family championing the cause of the Jina dharma. She was Kandacchi, the wife of Parama Gūla, who was the son of Dundu, the Nirgunda Yuvaraja about whose instruction in politics at the hand of Vimalacandra Acarya we have already mentioned above. This lady was the daughter of Maruvarma, who belonged to the Sagarakula, and his wife (unnamed) who was the daughter of Pallavādhirāja. Kandacchi ever promoting works of merit," caused to be constructed a Jina temple named Lokatilaka adorning the northern side of Sripura. For the repairs, worship, and other works of merit connected with it, the village of Poonalli along with other lands, in the Nirgunda country, was granted by the Ganga monarch Śrīpuruşa, on the application of Kandacchi's husband Parama Gula, Pṛthvi Nirgunda Rāja. We may observe here that to this royal grant made in A.D. 776 the witnesses were the eighteen officials.1
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In the first quarter of the tenth century A. D. figures a remarkable Jaina woman administrator and champion of Jainism. This was during the reign of the Rāṣṭrakūta monarch Kṛṣṇa III in A. D. 911, when the Mahāsāmanta Kaliviṭṭarasa of the Kāļki-devaysar-anvaya was the official placed over the Banavase 12,000 province. In that year Sattarasa Nagarjuna, the Nal-gāvunda of the Nagarakhanda 70, died. The Government appointed Sattarasa Nagarjuna's wife Jakkiyabbe in her husband's place as the Nal-gāvuṇḍa of the Nagarakhanda 70. This lady who was 'skilled in ability for good government, faithful to the Jinendra śāsana, (and) rejoicing in her beauty", protected the Nāgarakhaṇḍa 70. And "though a woman, in the pride of her own heroic bravery", committed an act which won for her still greater
1. E. C. IV. Ng. 85, pp. 135-36.
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