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SVASTI - Essays in Honour of Prof. Hampa Nagarajaiah
rock-shelters etc. which gained sanctity. The earliest such cave was the one associated with Bhadrabāhu that emerged into prominence only between the 9th to 10th centuries A.D. However, proper temple worship became popular between the 10th to 13th centuries A.D. The Sangha's new role emerged in the context of controlling the resources that were being generated by the laity for this worship and organizing this worship in a proper manner. Thus, we find that by the end of this period the individual monks who had earlier committed self-mortification and to whom the laity had come to see, more or less, disappear from the hill. The clergy now became engaged in temple building and temple management. The spiritual and religious activity now engulfs the entire valley around Shravana Belgola and not merely the hills because lands began to be given in the surrounding villages for the management of these temples. It would seem from the modus operandi of the Mūlasangha that the influential and affluent laity played a significant role in what kind of religious activities were to be followed. An important aspect of their interference in the Sangha was to appoint clergymen to manage the religious establishments. Image worship became the central feature of these religious institutions. Settar has discussed that in order to survive and compete with the other religions of the time, the language of the discussion and debates became increasingly militant." The micro-level study of Shravana Belgola is interesting from various angles. Its history reveals clearly the changes in the inter-connections between the spiritual values of the Jaina faith which were held high by the monks or clergy and the religious life and practices of the Jaina laity that changed over time in the given social context. The important role of the temples and monasteries in bringing about a change in religious practice has much to do with the generous donations that were received from the wealthy laity. It is thus our submission that the tīrtha here developed as a religious practice to enable laity to participate in the perpetuation of the spiritual values of their faith for which Shravana Belgola had already become very famous. Uphodling renunciation as an ideal Keeping in mind the changing religious practices that were affecting Jainism and also the fact that there were different points of view emerging in the organization of the different Jaina Sanghas, the large corpus of the Jaina literary tradition during the early medieval and medieval times began to preach on the values of upholding the principle of renunciation. Keeping in line with the earlier Jaina teaching it encouraged young men and women to renounce life and become nuns and monks as the most important way to achieve salvation and this was considered to be the more direct path. On the other hand, those who were unable to take this path had the option of living as a
33 The post-12th century A.D. period had been discussed by S. Settar, op. cit., 1986 in a section entitled "Emergence of Monuments - Shift in Spiritual Outlook", pp. 23-30 and in a separate chapter entitled: "Age of Great Material and Religious Prosperity", pp. 31 - 71. The ideas in the above paragraph have been summarized from these writings.
