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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM sana gained svarga in about A.D. 1366.1 From that date for about fifty-five years this orthodox manner of renouncing life seems to have been very popular with the Gaudas of Āvaļinād.2
It may be remembered here that the Mahāprabhus of Āvaļinād themselves had set a noble example to their subjects in this matter. Beci Gauda, the son of the Mahāprabhu of Āvaļinād Canda Gauda, was the disciple of Rāmacandra Maladhārideva. In about A.D. 1376 he performed the five obeisances and expired. On this his junior wife Muddi Gaundi performed sahagamana. And the Āvaļi Prabhus (noblemen, several of whom are named) set up a suitable monument to make permanent the devotion of the two to the Jina faith.3 The niece of the ruling Mahāprabhu Beca Gauda, by name Kāmi Gaundi, went to svarga by sarnyasana in A.D. 1395. She was a disciple of the rāja guru Siddhāntiyati.+ There was another case of self-immolation in Āvaļinād in A.D. 1398 when the wife of the ruling Mahāprabhu Canda Gauda, named Canda Gaundi, the disciple of Vijayakirti committed a similar act of devotion. Hāruva Gauda was the son of the ruling Mahāprabhu Rāma Gauda. He too in A.D. 1408 died in the same manner. His guru was Munibhadradeva. Gunasena Siddhānta is mentioned in connection with the death by samādhi of Kāļi Gauņņi, the wife of the ruling Mahaprabhu Ayappa Gauņņa, in circa A.D. 1417.7
These examples of devotion viewed from the modern
1. E. C. VIII, Sb. 102, p. 15. 2. Ibid, Sb. 106-120, p. 16, text, pp. 41-46. 3. Ibid, Sb. 106, pp. 15-16. 4. Ibid, Sb. 103, p. 15. 5. Ibid, Sb. 105, p. 15. text, pp. 40-41. 6. Ibid, Sb. 107, p. 16. 7. Ibid, Ti. 121, p. 186.
