acharyas/deshbhushan.jpg · 1000×1250Born Balgauda Patil in 1905 at Kothali in Belagavi district, Karnataka, to a landowning family, he studied Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and English, and is said to have earned a BA with Sanskrit and Prakrit from Bombay University. He took ailak diksha from Acharya Jayakirti in the early 1930s, and on 8 March 1936 received muni diksha at the Kunthalgiri tirtha in Maharashtra as Muni Deshbhushan. He was made acharya in 1948.
Knowing several languages, he translated and published Jain texts in Hindi, Kannada, Marathi and Gujarati, bringing Kannada Jain literature to Hindi readers. He spent long periods in North India; the hill shrine of Chulagiri near Jaipur arose from his inspiration in the 1950s, and the Delhi Jain community honoured him as Acharya Ratna. He gave kshullika diksha to the future Gyanmati Mataji and in 1963 muni diksha to Vidyananda. He attained samadhi at his birthplace, Kothali, in May 1987.
