Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c8.s4.35

v1.c8.s4.35

Equally famous was another city, Gērasoppe. About A.D. 1274 Ādiyaṇṇa, son of Gōvinda Seṭṭi of Gērasape, and lay disciple of Prabhāchandra Bhaṭṭāraka Dēva, granted as a perpetual endowment four gadyāṇas to provide for milk for the daily anointment of Gommaṭa Dēva at Belgola.⁴ From the thirteenth century onwards Gērasoppe constantly exerts a steady influence in the commercial, literary, and religious life of the people, "On the southern petal of the great lotus Jambu-dvipa is the Bhārata country, in which, on the eastern side of the western ocean, is the great Taulava country. In it, on the south bank of the Ambu river, shining like the *śri-puṇḍra* (or central sectarian mark on the forehead of Vaiṣṇavas) is Kṣēmapura, (i.e., Gērasoppe), like Purandhara (Indra's city), with glittering gōpuras (or temple towers). With five Jina Chaityas, king's palaces, abode of yōgis, lines of merchants' houses, with crowds of people devoted to acts of merit and liberality, groups of gurus and yatis, bands of poets and learned men, multitudes of excellent Bhavyas (or Jainas)—what city in the world was so celebrated as Gērasoppe?"⁵ No wonder this city, which was thus praised in about A.D. 1560, figured conspicuously in the annals of the Portuguese in India under its able rulers of Tuḷuva origin.¹