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THE ANEKĀNTAMATA IN THE EMPIRE 365 basadis which have yielded interesting epigraphs relating to the Jaina gurus of the first quarter of the fourteenth century A.D. Bēlür was the head quarters of the Inguleśvara bali and the Śyi samudāya attached to the Müla sangha and the Dēsiya gana.2 How influential the Jaina śestis, or commercial leaders of Bēlūr were has already been seen while describing the admirable manner in which the grave dispute between the Lingāyats and the Jainas was settled in A.D. 1638, during the regíme of Venkatādri Nāyaka of Bēlür.3
Towards the close of the Vijayanagara age, we have a Jaina priest called Lakşmisena Bhattāraka, who styled himself the Lord of the spiritual thrones of Dilli, Kollāpura, Jaina Kāśi, and Penugonda. It was a lay disciple of this guru by name Sakkare Sețţi, who had the Vimalanātha caityalaya at Nāgamangala constructed in A.D. 1680.4 How far the claims put forward by the scribe on behalf of Lakşmīsena Bhattāraka as regards the lordship of the spiritual thrones of the places mentioned above, are valid, cannot be determined at present. But Penugonda was, indeed, a Jaina centre. Here was the Pārsvanātha basadi. Near about it is a nisidhi of Nāgayya, the disciple of Jinabhūşaņa Bhaltāraka.“ We shall prove in the next chapter that Penugonda had further claims to be called a home of the Jainas.
1. See above. Chapter VI. Popular Support. 2. E. C. V. BI 134, op. cit. 3. Ibid, Bl. 128, op. cit. 4. Ibid, IV. Ng. 43, p. 125. 5. 345 of 1901.
