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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM a record assigned to A.D. 1182 :-“With however much milk he is bathed, it disappears; though garlanded with flowers down to his feet, they vanish ; though bathed with hot water, he on the contrary becomes cold—is this not sufficient to describe the greatness of Sāntinātha ?” The Acārya of this temple of Säntinātha was Bhānukirti Siddhānta of the Krā. ņūr gana, Tintriņika gaccha, and Nunna-varśa. He was the disciple of the learned Municandra, who had published commentaries, made the science of grammar his own, adopted the rules of logic, explained poems and dramas, and despised the god of love. It was to this same Bhanukirti that, as we related above, the General Rēca had granted a specified village as a gift. The basadi of Ratnatraya of Māguņại, of which Bhānukirti was the priest, we may note, was the creation of Sankara Sämanta, the first person in the kingdom of the ruler Boppa Deva. The temple thus built was so beautiful that it was praised by Sūryābharaṇa, the Tripurāntaka Sūri of Balipura. And to both the Bhavyas and the devout followers of Śiva it was a source of joy ! It was to see this lovely Jinālaya that Rēca Daņdādhisa had come all the way from his own city, as we narrated in an earlier connection. 1
Bandaņike is called a tirtha in A.D. 1075 when the Western Cālukyan monarch Someśvara had made specified gifts to the śāntinātha basadi.2 The same epithet is given to it in A.D. 1204 when Kavade Boppa was its ruler. This officer is called “half a Rēca in promoting the Jina dharma in the world.” He belonged to the trading class, as his name Kavaṇya Boppa Sețți implies. He erected a mantapa for the god śāntinātha. But he was not the only person who
1. E. C. VII. Sk. 197, p. 126, op. cit. 2. Ibid., Sk. 225, pp. 132-133.