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 362

THE ANEKĀNTAMATA IN THE EMPIRE
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the city of Gērasoppe prosperous and beautiful. Thus is it described in the record :
On the southern bank of the great lotus the Jambū-dvipa is the Bharata country, in which, on the eastern shore of the western ocean is the great Tauļava country. In it on the south bank of the Ambū river, shining like the Śrīpuņdra (or central sectarian mark on the forehead of the Śrīvaişņavas) is Kşemapura, like Purandara's (Indra's) city, with glittering gopuras (or temple towers) with fine Jina cait yālayas, king's palaces, abodes of yogis, lines of merchants' houses, with crowds of people devoted to acts of merit and liberality, groups of gurus and yatis, bands of poets, learned men, multitudes of excellent Bhavyas—what city in the world was so celebrated as Gērasoppe?
The great city of Gērasoppe had reason to be proud of its kings and commercial leaders. The king Immadi Deva Rāya was "a master of all royal wisdom", and "skilled in the seven kinds of strategems." This description of the Gērasoppe ruler enables us to identify him with king Sāluva Deva Raya, who is mentioned in the Kannada-Sanskrit record on the base of the Sānti Jina image, now deposited in the Madras Museum, as a great lover of sāhitya. The image of śānti Jina, we may note by the way, was set up by him.
Sāluva Immaļi Děva Rāya was proud of his great commercial magnate Ambavana Śreşthi. In the long genealogical account of this important person, these following facts seem to be noteworthy_That Ambavana śreşthi's ancestors traced their descent from a general who was in the service of the Candāvūru king Kāma Deva, by name Kāmeya Daņņāyaka ; that one of Ambavana's ancestors named
1. 526 of 1913 ; Rangacharya, Top. List, II. p. 987,