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13. JAINISM AND OTHER FAITHS
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composed by the Cedi king Yuvarajadeva II, which is preserved for us in the Bilhari inscription of the rulers of Cedi.1
The Saiva system proclaimed the paramount character of the Dharma propounded by Siva. There was a notable revival of Nyaya-Vaiseşika studies in the ninth and tenth centuries, and the Vaiseṣika system laid great stress on the cultivation of Dharma. The idea appealed to the Śaiva teachers who admitted the necessity of Dharma for the attainment of salvation, but contended that the Saiva creed, and not the various other Dharmas propounded by the different scriptures, constituted the paramount Dharma. The Isānasivagurudevapaddhati (Kriyāpāda, 1. 4 ff.) quotes the first of the Vaiseșika sūtras and says:
अथातो धर्ममित्यादिसूत्राद् वैशेषिकादतः । धर्मप्रयोजनं मोक्षः प्रोक्तश्चाभ्युदयो महान् ॥ uni agitur: eunaazgınzsikar: 1 a fe à gouni: eyjevnt: Batikar: 11 मायाविकारहीनेन विशुद्धेनामलात्मना । सर्वकर्त्रा शिवेनोक्तं शास्त्रं मुख्यं हि सर्वथा ॥
SAIVA MATHAS AND TEACHERS
The Saiva system was expounded and taught in the Mathas or monasteries many of which were in existence in central and western India in the tenth century or thereabouts. The Karhad plates of Kṛṣṇa III issued in 959 A. D. record the grant of a village to a teacher named Gaganasiva, described as a great ascetic proficient in all the S'ivasiddhantas. He was the pupil of the Acarya Isanasiva, the head of the Valkaleśvara Matha in Karahața (modern Karhaḍ in the Satara district); and the purpose of the grant was the maintenance of the ascetics who lived at the place. It may be assumed that the Valkaleśvara Matha was large and important enough to have attracted the notice of the Raṣṭrakūta emperor.
A teacher named Gaganaśivacārya, described as an ornament to the spiritual lineage of the sage Durvāsas, is mentioned in a Kanarese inscription issued by Dattalpendra Srīmāra, a king of the Alupa family which ruled for many centuries in the Tuluva country corresponding to the modern district of South Kanara and part of North Kanara. The subject of the record is the grant of a plot of land in Karkala in favour of the Matha
1 समदकरिघटाभिः किं किमङ्गाङ्गनाभिर्मदनशयनलीलां भावयन्तीभिराभिः । कनकतुरगवासोरलजातैर्न कृत्यं न हि भवति हेतुर्भवतु भवति नित्यं भक्तियोगो Verse 76. Yuvarajadeva
भवानीवल्लभस्यार्चनं चेत् | Verse 74. ( किमिह ) बहुभिरुक्तैर्नाथ सर्वस्य ममैकः । सकलसुखविशेषाद् यत्र पीयूषवर्षः स्वयमनुभवगम्यो जायते त्वत्प्रसादात् ॥ II reigned about the last quarter of the tenth century A. D. See Chapters VIII and IX.
'करहाटीय वल्कलेश्वरस्थानपति.
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