________________
290
MEDIÆVAL JAINISM mod. Kalya, where the record was found) having made petition to the king Bukka Rāya, sent for Tātayya of Tirumale, and had the sāsana renovated. And both (the Jaina and the Vaişņava) samayas uniting bestowed thc dignity of sangha-nāyaka on Basuvi Seçti.1
An analysis of this Great Charter which king Bukka Rāya gave to the Jainas of the Empire reveals the following :
1. That in the year of the construction of the great city of Vijayanagara (A.D. 1368)2 the Jainas were distributed throughout the Vijayanagara kingdom, but that those at Ancgundi (the parent city of the Empire), Hosapattaņa, Penugonda and Kalleha were the most prominent ;
2. That certain rights and privileges of these Bhavyas in that year or before had been questioned by the Śrīvaişņavas of the eighteen nādus ;
3. That the dispute was of such great importance that it was referred, not to the local provincial authority, or to the heads of both thc religious communities, but directly to the Vijayanagara king himself ;
4 That the king gave an equitable judgment in favour of the Jainas (evidently after due consultation), and in the presence of all the leaders of both the communities and even of those of the lower sections of the society like the Tirukula: and the Mādigas;
5. That this judgment was accepted without a murmur by the entire people ;
6. That copies of this momentous decision were inscribed
1. E. C. II. 334, pp. 146-147 ; IX. Ma. 18, pp. 53-54.
2. It is wrong to maintain that the city of Vijayanagara existed before A.D. 1368 when its construction was begun. Read Saletore S. P. Life. I. pp. 83-105.
3. Tirukula, Srikula, in modern parlance Harijan.
