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 89

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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM the illustrious Ajitasena was attached, for, as we have already seen, the latter is mentioned immediately next to Santideva under the title of Svāmå and Sabda-caturmukha. Säntideva died in A.D. 1062, as is proved by the damaged stone inscription found at Angaļi and dated in that year. This epigraph informs us that king Vinayāditya Poysala's guru Sāntideva having performed the rites of sarnyasana, as a reward of his faith attained to the realm of nirvāņa. The king and the company of townsmen (dēvaru śrīmatu sa......ra nakara samüha tamma gurugalge) erected the monument for the departure of their guru sāntideva.1 The evidence of this inscription may be utilized to show that śāntideya had indeed become a sort of a national preceptor in the days of king Vinayāditya II.
What king Vinayāditya did as a Jaina, obviously on the advice of his guru, is described in a stone record found in the Gandhavāraṇa basti at Sravana Belgoļa, and dated A.D. 1131. King Vinayāditya “gladly made any number of tanks and temples, any number of Jaina shrines, any number of nādus, villages, and subjects. When it is said that king Vinayāditya Poysala alone excelled the celebrated Balīndra, who can praise the greatness of that profound and brave king? The pits dug for bricks became tanks, the great mountains quarried for stone became level with the ground, the roads by which the mortar carts passed became ravines—thus did Poysala cause Jina temples (Jinarāja geham) to be erected.”2
True to the liberal spirit which has always marked Karnāțaka monarchs throughout history, king Vinayāditya II extended his patronage to other Jaina leaders as well. A
1. E. C. VI, Mg. 17, pp. 61, 245. 2. Ibid., II, ,143, pp. 70-71.