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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM age. The Padmāvati basti record contains a great many details about this remarkable Jaina teacher. He belonged to the Nandi sangha of the Kondakundānvaya in which Kondakunda himself, Samantabhadra, Pūjyapāda, Vardhamāna, Vădirāja, and other illustrious gurus had shone.
His qualifications are enumerated thus :—“The impression of Vidyānanda-svāmi's irreproachable reasoning is ever pleasing to the minds of poets, appearing like Bāņa's prose expressed poem.” Then again, "Is it Vāni, or Caturānana, or is it Vācaspati, or else is it the glory of the learned, Sahasravadana, or is it Ananta himself ?-thus do the learned express their doubts in the assembly when Vidyā. nandamuni is making the Buddheśabhavana-vyākhyāna." Further, Vidyānandāryya is victorious in the world," the summit of dharma." And, then, again, “Omniscient in the three Āgamas, adorned with the qualities of poetry, skilled in (making) many commentaries, a great gale to the cloud (opponent) speakers."1
Vādi Vidyānanda's achievements were many. In purely religious spheres, he performed great works of merit. In Kopaņa and other tīrthas with immense wealth, by the rite of dehājñā, in order to gain reward of salvation, he held great festivals and distinguished himself. At the two feet of Gummata in Belgoļa, with affection he poured out like rain to the Jaina sangha a mahākāla of cloths, ornaments, gold, and silver. And to the gaņa munis devoted to the discussion of the Yogāgama in Gērasoppe, he undertook with great cagerness the business of supporting as if he were the chief guru, and thereby distinguished himself.
His work in the field of learning was equally great and last
1.
E. C. VIII, Nr. 46, pp. 149-150.
