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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM we may explain the position of that religion in the famous capital itself. Here it is necessary to observe that the accounts of foreign travellers do not enlighten us on this question at all. But we have to depend upon the numerous epigraphs which contain, as usual, valuable details concerning Jainism in the city of Vijayanagara. The initiative of aiding the Jina faith was taken by the Vijayanagara generals and the royal ladies of the court. It was here in the capital that the Jaina General Irugappa Daņpanāyaka built a basadi which we shall mention at once. The queens of Vijayanagara were not slow in bestowing their patronage on these Jaina institutions in the capital. An inscription in that city tells us that Bukkayve, the queen of Vira Harihara Rāya (i.e., Harihara Rāya II) gave a gift to the basadi built by General Irugappa, in the cyclic year īśvara. This cyclic year corresponds to the saka year 1319 (A.D. 1397) 2
Among the monarchs Deva Rāya II stands high in the estimation of the Jainas for having built a basadi in the capital itself. An inscription in a ruined basadi in that city dated saka 1348 Parābhava (A.D. 1426) records the building of a caityālaya to Pārsvanātha at the orders of that monarch in the Pānsupāri street of the capital.3 King Deva Rāya II's act of benevolence needs comment. He gave concrete expression to the feeling of reciprocal goodwill which king Bukka Rāya had so admirably shown in A.D. 1368. To the Jainas
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1. Read Saletore, S. P. Life, II. p. 27 seq.
2. 501 of 1907 ; Rangacharya, Top. List., I, p. 313 ; Swamikannu, op. cit., IV. p. 396.
3. 32 of 1889; $. I. I. I, 153, pp. 160-167 ; Rangacharya, ibid., I. p. 312 ; Ramaswami, Studies, p. 118. It is wrong to say that king Deva Raya I. built this temple (V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, Indian Historical Quarlerly, XIII, p. 259.).
