Medieval Jainism

SR No.: 011082
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhasker Anand Saletore
Publisher: Karnataka Publishing House
Total Pages: 448
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 27 MB

Page 160

JAINA MEN OF ACTION
145 Here General Hulļa caused to be erected a splendid Jina temple," from the base to the pinnacle so as to stand to the end of time.” Here too he built five great basadis “desirous of the five mahā-kalyānas " (i.e., birth, anointment, renunciation, enlightenment, and liberation). All these details are mentioned in a record dated about A.D. 1159.1 Another .inscription dated A.D. 1163 has further information to give concerning General Hulļa's work at the same centre. In this year he caused to be made, as an act of reverence, an epitaph to his guru the Mahāmaņdalācarya Devakīrtideva, who had built the Pratāpapura basadi at Kellangere. This basadi was attached to the Rūpanārāyaṇa basadi of Kollāpura, and to the Desiya gana and the Pustaka gaccha. General Hulļa had this basadi of Pratāpapura renovated ; and built an almshouse at Jinanāthapura, a village about a mile to the north of Śravana Belgoļa.2
How did General Hulla pass his daily life? “Delighting in restoration of Jina temples, in assemblies for Jina worship, in gifts to groups of ascetics, in devotion to the praise of Jina's feet, in hearing holy purāņas of Jina, the General Huļļa praised by the blessed, passes his time every day."'3 And his place in the history of Jainism is thus described : The firm promoters of the Jina doctrine were only three at the beginning Cāmunda Rāya, and after him only Gangana, "and after him again only Huļļa, the excellent minister of king Nộsimha." If any other had (such claim), the engraver of this record dated about A.D. 1159 has the courage to ask, why not name him ? Indeed, Huļļa was a modern Ganga
1. E. C. II, Intr., p. 70, n. (1) ; 345, pp. 148-149. 2. Ibid., 64, pp. 18-19, and p. 19, n. (2) 3. Ibid., 345, op. cit.