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JAINISM AT THE PROVINCIAL COURTS 317 or better known as Hāduhalli, was one of the chicf cities of Tuļuva. The kings of this city belonged to the Kaśyapa gotra and the Soma varśa. An inscription dated A.D. 1488 describes Sangītapura thus-In the Tauļavadeśa, the abode of fortune, having splendid caityālayas, a place of descent in the female line, inhabited by happy, generous, and pleasure-loving people, filled with elephants, horses, and powerful warriors, poets, disputers, orators, and declaimers, a place for the production of elegant literature, renowned for all the fine arts, was Sangitapura.
There are good reasons to believe that the praise thus given to the city, particularly in regard to the company of learned men, was not extravagant. We shall have an occasion of referring presently to the learned circles of Sangītapura.
The same epigraph cited above gives the name of the Mahāmandaleśvara Sāluvendra as the king of Sangītapura in A.D. 1488. “Devoted to the pair of feet of Candraprabha Jina,” this ruler with “his mind a casket for the three jewels", promoted the cause of the Jina dharma by constructing beautiful and lofty caityālayas, with glorious mantapas, mahā-stambhas of bell-metal, pleasure groves for the town, many images of metal and stone, provision for temple ceremonies, daily gifts, worship, and gifts of learning. It was thus that king Sāluvendra maintained royal dignity and dharma (antu rāja-dharmam pälisuttam).3
His minister was Padma, or Padmaņa, who was also of
1. It is now in the North Kanara district.
2. Ratna-traya which are samyak-dharśana (purity in sight) samyak-jñāna (purity in thought), and samyak--cārita (purity in conduct).
3. E. C. VIII. Sa. 163, p. 123-124.