acharyas/shantisagar.jpg · 1000×1250Born Satgauda in 1872 in the village of Bhoj in Belagavi district, he lived as a quiet, devout householder and farmer before taking vows in 1918 and full Digambara initiation as a muni around 1920. He was given the name Shantisagar — “ocean of peace”.
By then, fully initiated Digambara monks had become extremely rare in much of India. Shantisagar changed that. He walked across the country with his growing sangh of monks, and when colonial-era authorities in some regions tried to restrict naked monks from moving in public, he protested through fasting until the restrictions were lifted. The honorific Charitra Chakravarti — emperor of right conduct — was given to him for the strictness of his practice.
Concerned that the ancient Dhavala scriptures survived only in fragile palm-leaf manuscripts, he inspired their preservation — including engraving them on copper plates in the 1950s. In 1955, at Kunthalgiri in Maharashtra, he undertook sallekhana, the vow of peaceful fasting unto death, and passed away on 18 September 1955 after more than a month. Nearly every Digambara monastic lineage today looks back to his revival.
