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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM doms; the various Jaina centres of the south, and especially in Karnāšaka, possessed some of the most superb intellectual prodigies India had ever producel. These spiritual leaders did not stand in constant need of royal benevolence : their vast congregations, as we shall presently point out in a later context, contained exceedingly wealthy communities which never allowed the Jina śāsana to be overtaken by calamity ; and repeatedly Jaina gurus appeared to rekindle the smouldering fire of the Jina dharma. An explanation of this singular feature of Jainism seems to be that, as we saw at the beginning of this treatise, it was an example of a religion in the pre-Vijayanagara days which demonstrated the importance of the fact of even religious leaders aiding materially the creation of the proper political environment necessary for the resuscitation of the life in the country. It is precisely here that we see the importance of Jainism in the history of India : more than a faith which produced great leaders and writers in philosophy, and admirable men and women in the field of letters; and much more than a creed which added to the architectural and artistic splendour of India, Jainism was a religion which transmitted through the Hoysala rulers a message ta the monarchs of Vijayanagara which these latter kings of the mediæval times, after a brilliant struggle in a period the intensity of which we can hardly now gauge, made the pivot of their existence, thereby opening once again another glorious chapter in the history of India.1
The birth-place of the Hoysalas was Sosevur (Skt. Saśākapura) which Rice had identified with Angaļi in the south of the Mūdgere tāluka, Kaqur district, Mysore State. 2
1. For a discussion of this point, see Saletore, Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire, I, pp. 243-246.
2. E. C. VI, Intr. p. 14.
| SR No. | 011082 |
| Book Title | Medieval Jainism |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Bhasker Anand Saletore |
| Publisher | Karnataka Publishing House |
| Publication Year | |
| Total Pages | 448 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 27 MB |