Vijayaditya

Source of information

Vijayaditya donated a village named Kadamma, located to the south of Purikaranagara, to Sankha-Jinendra (Neminatha) Jain Basadi at Lakshmeshwara, Gadag district in 730 CE.

The Anesejjaya Jain basadi was built by "Kumkumamahadevi", the younger sister of the Chalukya king Vijayaditya.

The Shiggaon plates inscription, dated Saka 630, regnal year 11, records Vijayaditya’s gifts to a Jain monastery at Puligere. Contemporary records indicate that Vijayaditya was a follower of Jainism. The inscription also refers to him with the title Bhaṭṭāraka, which in the Digambara Jain tradition denotes a senior religious authority overseeing prathimādhāri śrāvakas and lay followers.

Epigraphist "K. V. Ramesh" notes that the title Bhaṭṭāraka (male) or Bhaṭṭārikā (female) is the highest monastic administrative rank among Digambara Jainism and denotes senior religious authority, not a designation for ordinary śrāvakas or laypersons. In the Digambara tradition, ordinary śrāvakas and prathimādhāris (those who maintain an image or follow daily devotion) practice the core religious duties, but only those who have taken advanced monastic or administrative responsibilities and strictly follow the dharma in its deepest sense are elevated to the rank of Bhaṭṭāraka or Bhaṭṭārikā.