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THE ORIENT
history of mankind. Starting from its principle, founded on world-and life-denial of abstention from action, ancient Indian thought-and this is a period when in other respects ethics have not progressed very far-reaches the tremendous discovery that ethics know no bounds. So far as we know, this is for the first time clearly expressed by Jainism." His was an uncompromising demand for living pure, reverent, patient, pitiful, loving all living beings as oneself.
Religious Consanguinity
The origins of this most ancient religion of India could be traced back to the religious beliefs of the Indus Valley Dravidians. The Mohenjo-daro idol of the prototype of Shiva is interpreted as that of Rishaba, the first Tirthankara, and the venerated bull the symbolic representation of his name. This religious consanguinity perhaps explains the deep veneration Jainism still commands in the South.
Jainism has always been most popular in Mysore where at Sravana Belgola, about hundred kilometres west of Bangalore, stands the colossal statue of the renowned Jaina Saint Bahubali, son of Rishaba, popularly known as Gomatesvara. One of the world's sculptural miracles, the statue is hewn out of a single vertical rock 57 feet high, showing the saint absorbed in deen meditation while ant-hills rise on either side of his feet and creepers entwine his legs and arms. The stupendous image was carved about 980 A.D. at the behest of Chamunda Ray, the Jain minister of the Ganga king Rajamalla. The majesty and freshness of the statue is perpetuated by a periodical anointment of ghee and milk mixed with spices and sweets and silver offered by devotees.
For several centuries Jainism predominated the religious life of Karnataka. Jain relics, inscriptions and sculptural monuments are found scattered throughout the state revealing the tremendous appeal the belief held there. Uninterrupted state patronage it enjoyed under successive Mysore rulers as well as the historic role it played in developing the Kannada literature account for the faith's permanent hold in Karnataka. The Ganga kings of Talkad, the Kalachurya monarchs of Manyakheta, the Rashtrakutas and the early Hoysalas were all Jains. The Brahmanical Kadambas as well as the early Chalukyas had adopted a tenderattitude towards it and continued to extend the royal patronage to Jain writers. Almost all Kannada writers upto the middle of the twelfth century were Jains. The Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang found the Jains everywhere in Mysore immensely contributing to the religious life by engaging themselves in lively religious discourses with Buddhist monks.
