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 350

'THE ANEKĀNTAMATA İN THE EMPIRE 333 standpoint may appear to be relics of fanaticism. But to the people of the mediaeval times the only mode of expressing one's devotion was to abide by the strictest injunctions of one's faith. The Jaina leaders, we may observe by the way, had showed throughout the history of Jainism that selfabstinence was the only way to salvation. The people and princes of Āvaļinād merely followed the precept of the Jaina teachers in this respect. The few examples of extreme devotion we have given above are noteworthy from another point of view. The Mahāprabhus of Āvaļinād by their steadfastness to the service of the Jina dharma, had raised religious zeal to a height which it rarely attained anywhere in those days.
But Āvaļinād was not the only part of the Sohrāb tāluka where the Bhavyas followed unswervingly the tenets of the anekāntamata. Kuppațūr, Uddhare, and Huligere were also well known as prominent Jaina centres. In Kuppațūr lived the famous Śrutamuni whose disciple was Devacandra, "praised by the good chief poets." Both belonged to the Desiya gaņa. Devacandra, who had restored a Jaina temple at Kuppațūr, died in A.D. 1367.1 By A.D. 1402 Kuppațūr had become a famous place. It was the best place in the whole of Nāgarakhanda. Here was a Jaina caityālaya which had received a śāsana from the Kadambas. In that caityālaya was “the famous Candraprabha, a relative (bāndhava) of Pārsvanātha, serving as guru the pandita whom his father Durgesa had pointed out."2
1. E. C. VIII. Sb. 260, p. 40.
2. The date of this record is not clear. Rice dates it to A.D. 1342 or A.D. 1402. The cyclic year Citrabhānu and a few details given in it are not verifiable. (Ibid, Sb. 263, pp. 42-43, text,' p. 111.).