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WOMEN AS DEFENDERS OF THE FAITII 163 learning, and acquired thereby the name of being “a mine of auspiciousness."1 Indeed, such was her unparalleled devotion that the scribe who wrote the epigraph dated A. D. 1121 asks the question--"Can other women in the world equal Lakşmīyāmbike, wife of Ganga Rāja, in skill, beauty, and deep devotion to God?” In that same year, however, Lakşmīmati Dandanāyakiti adopting the sainyasana ended her life by samādhi; and her husband as an act of reverence, set up an epitaph (at Śravaņa Belgola) and consecrated it with great gifts and worship.2
Ganga Räja, as we have already seen, had an elder brother whose wife was called Jakkanabbe. This lady too was called Dandanāyakiti, obviously, as the late Mr. Narasimhacarya suggested, after her husband's title.? Jakkaņabbe was also the disciple of Subhacandradeva. She was the mother of General Boppa. After observing the vow known as mokşutilaka, she caused the god to be carved on the boulder Nombare (Nõmbare-nayaņade dēvaru) and had it consecrated at Sravaņa Belgoļa in about A.D. 1120. In that same year a tank was built there by her. In A. D. 1123 she is praised in very high terms. She “was always admired and praised by the whole earth as one who with the greatest reverence caused the worship of Jina to be performed, and as the possessor of pure conduct and many qualities."'5
The same name Jakkiyabbe was also borne by the wife of another remarkable Jaina general Punisamayya. This lady is likewise styled a Dandanāyakiti ; and a record assign
1. E. C. II, 127, p. 56. 2. Ibid., 128, p. 56. 3. Ibid., Intr., p. 54. 4. Ibid., 367, 384, 400, pp. 160, 161, 170. 5. Ibid., 117, p. 48.
