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CHAPTER VIII.
VIJAYANAGARA'S PLEDGE
Jainism and Hindu dharma-A sketch of the history of toleration in Karnāțaka-Vijayanagara makes history by deciding great cases in A.D. 1363 & 1368 Political significance of the royal decision of 1368-Examples to prove the permanent effects of the royal decree of 1368 from cases throughout the history of the Vijayanagara Empire.
TN the year of the foundation of the Vijayanagara Empire
. (A.D. 1346) Jainism stood baffled but not beaten. It had been steadily driven from the premier place it had occupied in the Tamil and Telugu land, and even in Karnāțaka, and compelled to occupy a secondary position, especially in the last province, from which it apparently seemed that it had no means of escape. The age in which the Vijayanagara Empire was established was the most critical in the history of the country. It was also a perilous time for the followers of the syād vāda doctrine. For without leaders who could grasp the situation in the country as a Simhanandi had done in the early days, Jainism was likewise without a message for the people who were now faced with problems infinitely more complex and more difficult than any which the Gangas and the other early rulers had to
1. Read Saletore, Social & Political Life, I, pp. 1-22.
