Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c14.11

c14.11

Bitter animosity continued to exist against the Jains, and in 1368 (as already related above, p. 113) they complained in a body to the Vijayanagar king Bukka-Rāya of the persecutions to which they were subjected by the Vaishnavas. The king summoned before him the leading men of both sects, and after inquiring into the matters in dispute, decided that no difference could be allowed as regards their liberty to follow their respective ceremonials. He then took the hand of the Jains, and holding it in the hand of the Vaishnavas, decreed that the Jains were free to carry out their customary ritual, and that equal protection would be given to both sects (SB 136). This decree was to be set up at all Jain bastis by the Vaishnavas, who were not to look upon the Jains as in a single respect different. And, from a fund which the Jains would annually raise among themselves, the Vaishnavas were to appoint twenty men as a body-guard for the Jain image of Gomaṭa at Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa, and were to repair such Jain temples as had been ruined. This was actually done at Kallēha (Kalya in Māgaḍi tāluq), as witness the copy of the decree set up there (Ma 18).