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 194

POPULAR SUPPORT
179
liberal minister.1
Not officials alone but merchants of the royal household and other high dignitaries as well were responsible for the continuance of the Jina dharma. Bhujabala Ganga Permmāļi, Bamma Gāvunda, Biţtideva, and the Nād-prabhu whose name is not given in the record dated A.D. 1111, granted specified land for a basadi in Shimoga along with six houses and an oil mill.2 Their work was insignificant when compared with what the royal merchants (rāja-śreşthi) Poysala setti and the graceful and sagacious Nēmi setti did in A.D. 1117. They were the royal merchants to king Poysala, and were famous as "the warm supporters of the Jina dharma (which) spread widely (over the earth).” For the Jina temple and a mandāra (which was a car-like structure sculptured on all sides with fifty-two Jaina figures, supposed to represent the island of Nandīśvara) which their mothers Mācikabbe and Sāntikabbe had caused to be constructed, Poysala Setti and Nēmi sețți made suitable gifts.3
Some interesting details concerning Hoysala ścţti are available in epigraphs. He had the title of Tribhuvanamalla Caladanka Rāva, and his wife was called Cattikabbe. This lady was a devout Jaina who delighted in the four kinds of gifts. When in about A.D. 1130 her husband, after bestowing the title Caladanka Rāva Hoysala Setti on Malli Sețţi of the Passport Department (yundigeya) of Ayyāvole, died by the rite of sallekhanā, she caused an cpitaph to be made as an act of reverence to her husband and her son Būcaņa.
1. E. C. VII. Sh. 10, pp. 11-12. 2. Ibid, Sh. 89, pp. 34-35. 3. Ibid, II., 137, p. 64, and ibid, n. 1.
4. Ibid, II, 159, p. 78. See also ibid. Intr. p. 55 ; 402 dated A.D. 1138 where Hoysala Setti's son is mentioned. Ibid. p. 170.