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STATE AID TO JAINISM
309 After having enjoyed the society of his wives for many days, he abandoned family pleasures To the Brahmans he gave gifts of gold, cows, grain, and the like. He discarded the pleasures of the mind and the palate, repeated the praises and prayers of the Jina dharma, and taking the hand of mokşa Lakşmi with great joy went to heaven (on the date specified in detail), amidst the plaudits of all the good. But his wives were not a whit behind him in their devotion to the Jina dharma. Seeing that, they made at once all gifts to Brahmans, with pure mind reverence to the lotus feet of Siddhāntācārya, and thinking of the great Vītarāga, went to heaven.1
Now this record is dated A.D. 1408 ; and it cannot be that Gopa Mahaprabhu was the commandant of the Nidugal fortress in A.D. 1410, as suggested by Ricc. Hence we have to suppose that Gopa Mahāprabhu was placed over that hill-fortress prior to A.D. 1408.
Gopa Mahāprabhu seems to have been a great patriot. This alone explains why the scribe who mentions his death, eulogizes the land of Karnāțaka as a country that was distinguished in many ways and in beauty beyond description.”
We may mention two more names of high officials of this age in order to complete the account of men of action of early Vijayanagara history. One is that of Masanahalļi Kampaņa Gauda, the great lord of Bayinād. He was the disciple of Panạitadeva. In A.D. 1424 he granted the village of Tõțahalli situated in his own Bayinād for the worship of Gummațanāthasvāmi of Belgoļa.3 The other example is that of Vallabharājadeva Mahā-arasu, the grandson of the
1. E. C. VIII. Sb. 261, pp. 41-42. 2. See motto at the beginning of this work. 3. E. C. IV. Hg. 1, p. 65.
