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THE ANEKĀNTAMATA IN THE EMPIRE 323 like all institutions which mirrored the political vicissitudes through which the Vijayanagara Empire passed, Jainism, too, reflected the changing fortunes of that great mediæval organization. It was in the middle of the fourteenth century that king Bukka Raya had publicly laid down a policy of impartiality to all the religions. And it was also in this century that the growing Empire of Vijayanagara invigorated itself after a series of successful campaigns against its enemies. Both these features are visible in the history of Jainism in the mediæval ages. During the fourteenth century Jainism was popular throughout the Empire, and everywhere the people, obviously in imitation of the example set by king Bukka Rāya in A.D. 1368, nourished the cause of the Jina dharma, in spite of their being the followers of an avowedly non-Jaina faith. The Vijayanagara Empire matured in the fifteenth century, and reached its height in the sixteenth century. It was during the fifteenth century that Jainism permeated the people and the powerful principalities of the Empire. The glorious age of Krşņa Deva Rāya the Great and Acyuta Rāya marked the hey-day of the Vijayanagara Empire ; and curiously enough it was also the period when Jainism produced its most renowned exponent in the person of Vādi Vidyānanda. The seventeenth century witnessed the waning of the Vijayanagara authority ; and at the same time the retreat of Jainism from the strongholds it possessed in the many provincial seats to its original home Sravana Belgoļa and the more distant province of Tuļuva. Like the fate of the Hindu dharma, that of the syād väda, too, was linked intimately with the fortunes of the Vijayanagara House..
If we examine the history of Jainism in Belgoļa, Kalleha, Hosapattana, Harave, Maleyür, Huņsūr, Avali, Sohrāb, Hire Çauti, Kuppațūr, Uddhare, Huligere, Rāyadurga, and
