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1 SIDDHASENA DIVAKARA
45
6. Kudangeswara and Mahākāla? :-- Both these names appear to refer to one and the same holy place or temple. On the evidence of the old works such as Āvaśyaka Cūrņi and others Āchārya Hemacandra2 and other scholars have referred to this place as a holy one where a sage named Avanti Sukumāla died. After the death of this sage his son in the sacred memory of his father built a temple which afterwards came to be known as the temple of Mahā kāla. Thus, according to Jaina tradition, this holy temple of Mahākāla has its origin in the burial place of Avanti Sukumāla, the disciple of Arya Suhasti who must have lived in the 2nd century before the Vikrama era. The significance of the name Kudanga seems to be that the place was covered over with thickets, for which the Saṁskṛta name is Kudangas. It is moreover, stated in Jaina works that the temple is situated on the bank of the river Sipră.
The present temple of Mahā kāla stands on the eastern bank of the river Siprā on the Ghatas of Pisāca Mukteś wara. This holy place of Mabākāla of Avanti was once a very renowned place. It has been described in the Parāṇas such as Skanda4, Matsya and Narasimha. The poet Kalidāsa refers with very great reverence to this magnificent teinple of Mahākāla in his Meghaduta
i "a garfoi HETFI sira area arcaFI" A. C. vol. II p. 157. 2 Pari. Canto 11 v. 151-177. 3 feet gaartea' Amarakośa 3.17.
4 See Bangiya Viswa Kosa for the words 'Mabākala' *Ujjaina' and 'Avanti.'
5 See Meghadūta Pūrva-Saudesa v. 34.
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