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612
MEDIÆVAL JAINISM
tion is doubly important : Firstly, it tells us that in Angadi there lived a Jaina guru, evidently because it was a Jaina centre; and, secondly, it associates Angadi with the Western Cālukyas in a period which saw the emergence of the Hoysalas as a political power.
The other fact concerning Angadi is about the antiquity of the Jaina basadis of the place. The late Mr. Narasimhacarya has shown that the modern Vasantammā image in the temple at Angaļi cannot in any way be connected with the Vāsantikā of the Jainas and the early Hoysalas, and that the present goddess has been set up in the place of the original image. The same scholar wrote that at some distance from this temple are two ruined basadis standing in a line and facing north. These which contain scarcely any crnamentation in them, represent Hoysala structure of an earlier type.' Dr. Krishna supports this view, and opines that the basadis may belong to the tenth century A.D., informing us of the name of one of the basadis-Makara Jinālaya.?
Here in Angaļi happened an incident which has become celebrated in the history of Karnāțaka. It concerns the activites of a Hoysala chief and a Jaina guru in the latter half of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh century A.D. The story in brief is the following. In the town of Angadi there lived a Jaina guru by name Sudatta. On a ceriain occasion when the Hoysala chief went to worship at the temple of his family goddess Vāsantikādevi at Sosevūru, and when he was being instructed by the Jaina guru there, a tiger bounded out of the forest, glaring with rage. The Jaina sage snatching hastily his rod handed it over to the
1. M. A. R. for 1917, p. 7. 2. Ibid for 1929, pp. 8-9.
| 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 |