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STATE AID TO JAINISM
299 And in regard to Jainism their attitude was by no means different. It is evident that the noble example of king Bukka Rāya I exercised a great influence on his successors. Hence we find that kings and queens and members of the royal family gave unstinted patronage to the cause of the anekāntamata in the Empire. And it is interesting to note in this connection that the impulse to support the cause of the Jina dharma came from the queens of Vijayanagara, one of whom was a Jaina herself. This was Bhimā Devī, who was the queen of Deva Rāya I. Her spiritual guru was Panạitācārya ; and in about A.D. 1410 she caused an image of śāntināthasvāmi to be made in the Mangāyi basadi at Sravana Belgoļa. This temple, we may note by the way, had been built in about A.D. 1325, by Mangāyi of Belgola, “a crest jewel of royal dancing girls”, and a lay disciple of Abhinava Cărukīrti Panạita, of the same place. But about the identity of Panditācārya, however, no details are forthcoming."
Queen Bhīmā Devī may have been responsible for the generous attitude of king Deva Rāya I towards the Jaina gurus. Evidence from two inscriptions definitely points to the high favour in which that monarch held the Jina faith and its champions. The Padmāvati basti inscription of Humcca cited elsewhere in this treatise, contains the statement that Dharmabhūşaņa guru, the chief disciple of Vardhamāna muni, and a great orator, was served by munis and rājas. Dharmabhūşaņa “had his two feet illumined by the crown of the rājādhirāja parameśvara, the king Deva Rāya.”4 From the
1. E. C. II., Intr. p. 29; 337, p. 144. 2. Ibid., 33a, p. 145.
3. There is an Abhinava Panditācārya mentioned in circa A.D. 1311. Ibid, 495, pp. 133-4.
4. Ibid., VIII. Nr. 46, p. 148.
