Arhat Parshva and Dharnendra Nexus

SR No.: 002108
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M A Dhaky
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 204
Language: English, Hindi
Classification: Book_English, Articles, History, Art, E000, & E001
File Size: 8 MB

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Arbat Parsva and Dharanendra Nexus
got almost all Jaina inscriptions written in the Kannada language though by then Telugu also had come to be used as a major epigraphical medium. So also, even in Tamil Nadu where Tamil, Tamilians and Jainism had interacted significantly and to a considerable all-pervading benefit, the continuing influence of the Kannadigas is sufficiently attested to by epigraphical sources.
To the best of my knowledge, there is only one pre-Telugu early historical Jaina site in Andhra Pradesh, Danavulapadu in Cuddapah District. Though about a dozen Jaina inscriptions, most of them in Kannada, unearthed during excavations conducted in that village, they belong to a period as late as the eighth-ninth centuries. Later, a brick chamber revealed there and an image of Pärśvanätha enshrined therein have been attributed to c. third century A.D.' The inscriptions, however, do not contain any reference to Pārsvanatha.
In point of fact, there are only a couple of references to Pārsvanatha in inscriptions from Andhra Pradesh, and these too are of a period as late as the 11th and 12th centuries A.D.
Of these the Cilur (Hyderabad District) pillar inscription2 of the Kalyāṇa-Calukya ruler Vikramaditya V, in Kannada language and dated in A.D. 1012, records a grant of lands made by the king's daṇḍanāyaka Padmanabhayya to the Arhat Pārsvadeva of Indra-Jinālaya attached to the Antara-vasadi of Cilakūru. From the name of the temple, Indra-Jinalaya, we may reasonably infer that it was built in the reign of, or in memory of one of the three Rastrakūta emperors bearing that name. It is noteworthy that Pärsvadeva is mentioned herein as Annal-Atisaya-Pärsvadeva. Annal, among other things, also stands for the Arbat, more so in Tamil. From the adjective atisaya we must surmise that the image had miraculous potency, for atisayas of the Jina in Nirgrantha terminology imply extraordinary physical characteristics and attendant glory phenomena and images or tirthas which are qualified as 'sad-atisaya-yukta' are supposed to possess the curative or benign influence or power.
A Kannada inscription3 from Ujjili (Mahbubnagar District), engraved in the 11th century characters, is dated in Saka 888 (current), Prabhava (-966-67 A.D.) and registers grants made to the Jaina Tirthankara Cenna-Pärsvadeva installed in the Baddi-Jinālaya in the town of Ujjivolol. The name of the temple, Baddi-Jinālaya, tempts me to conclude that it was probably built by, or during the reign of and named after the Räṣṭrakūta emperor Baddega Amoghavarṣa who ruled during A.D. 936-39. The gift was received, on behalf of the temple, by its acārya Indrasēnapandita.
On the reverse of the slab is engraved another Kannada inscription of A.D. 1097
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