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13. JAINISM AND OTHER FAITHS
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period of the activities of Basava and his contemporaries. Jedara Dāsimayya, one of the early Vacana writers, is believed to have been a contemporary of the Cālukya king Jayasimha I whose reign covers the greater portion of the first half of the eleventh century A. D. The principal writers and leaders of the movement, however, belong to the latter half of the next century. Among the contemporaries of Basava may be mentioned Ekāntada Rāmayya, a vigorous propagandist who is said to have destroyed Jaina temples; Prabhudeva who was the head of the Virakta-matha at Kalyāņa, the pontifical seat known as Sünya-simhāsana The throne of the void '; Cennabasava who seems to have led the movement after Basava; Siddharāma who is known as Sivayogin, and several others.
The doctrines and social practices of the Virasaivas are beyond the scope of our discussion. It may, however, be noted that the apostles of Virasaivism laid great stress on intense devotion (bhakti) to Siva, and owed a good deal to the teachings of the great Saiva saints of the Tamil land. Indeed the Virasaiva saints claimed the Tamilians as their own; and the Kannada Virasaiva literature teems with accounts of the
va saints.' More important for us is the fact that Virasaivism spread like wild fire over a considerable portion of the Deccan and southern India. It enjoyed extensive patronage and privileges under the Vijayanagura kings. It was the religion of the Keļadi or Ikkeri chiefs who ruled a considerable portion of the Vijayanagara empire. The ancestors of the present rulers of Mysore were Lingāyats till the 18th century. Of all the rivals of Jainism Virasaivism seems to have been the most potent, and still continues to play an important role in the social and religious life of South-western India.
Apart from the rise of Virasaivism, the loss of royal patronage following the overthrow of the Rāştrakūtas and the Gangas placed Jainism at a disadvantage in its encounter with rival creeds. The reorganisation of Vaianavism by Rāmānuja and the conversion of the Hoysala king Bittideva (Vişnuvardhana) by the latter at the end of the eleventh century was another blow to the prospects of Jainism in the south. Most of the Jaina centres in Karņāțaka (Paudanapura, Hanasoge, Humcca, Balligāme etc.) ceased to be strongholds of Jainism, and “in the centres which fell into the hands of the non-Jainas, only mutilated Jaina images and broken slabs bear silent testimony to the once prosperous condition of Jainism in the country”. It has been said of Balligāme that, like many a great
1 For a brief but authoritative account of Virasaivism see Dr. Nandimath's book
cited above. % Saletore: Medicvul Jainism, p. 184.
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