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202
langere.1
Let us now pass on to the other great centre-Balligame. Throughout the eleventh century A.D. Balligāme figures as a prominent Jaina centre, although during the same age it was the home of all the different religious creeds. And of the various religious organizations that had made Balligame their home, no doubt the Kāļāmukha order deserves the highest praise. It is in connection with one of the greatest figures in Kālāmukha history, Vadi Rudraguna Lakuliśvara Pandita, that, as we said in the above pages, we come across statements pertaining to Jainas in Balligăme. In all likelihood the three great Jaina teachers Abhayacandra, Vādibhasimha Vädigharatța Ajitasena, and Vādiraja-whom Lakulīśvara Pandita defeated in disputation-, excluding others whose identity is still unknown, could only have been worsted by the great Kālāmukha teacher either in the court of the Western Calukyan ruler Jayasimhadeva at Patţalakere or in Balligame itself.
We presume that it was in the latter city that the disputation took place on the following grounds-In the first place, Balligame by virtue of its having been the centre of the then existing creeds was pre-eminently suited to be the meeting ground of all the religious disputants. But a more valid reason in support of our assumption is that supplied by the stone inscription dated A.D. 1048, that is to say, only twelve years after the above inscription relating to the achievements of Lakuliśvara Pandita. The lithic record found in the Somesvara temple at Shikarpur, opens in the acknowledged Jaina manner. It deals with the work of the Mahamaṇḍaleśvara Cămuṇḍa Rayarasa, who was the
MEDIEVAL JAINISM
1. E. C. V. BL. 123, p. 80. See also Rice's note on pinigalam, ibid, p. n. (3)
