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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Arhat Parsva and Dharanendra Nexus
praty-aśvam Pārévadévasya ghotaka-vyavahāribhiḥ | puj-ārtham cīrnna-yugalam dattam-ā-candra-tārakam Il
Pedda-Kadumūru (Mahbubnagar District) has also yielded a Jaina inscription dated in A.D. 1119, referring as it does to the reign of Kalyāņa-Cālukya Vikramāditya VI. This Kannada inscription records a grant of 12 mattars of land and a tank to the god Parissadeva (Pārsvadeva) installed in the basadi of Sankara-setti in PiriyaKadambūru.
From these scanty epigraphical references, one thing becomes clear that Jainism never became a popular religion in Andhra Pradesh among the local Andhrans, and that whatever patronage it received over there was more or less confined to rulers and people from Karnataka.
Jainism did not fare any better in Kerala and epigraphical references to Pārsvanātha and his temples there are few and far between. Significantly, these few available inscriptions are located in places which have been either subsequently transferred to Tamil Nadu as a sequel to States' reorganization or are situated on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. Hence, I propose to discuss those inscriptions along with those of Tamil Nadu.
Tiruccāranattu-malai near Citral and Nāgarkovil, both of them now in Kanyakumari District in Tamil Nadu but not long ago were included in the erstwhile Travancore state, and Kallil in Kottayam District, Kerala, had flourished as important Jaina centres in which Pārsvanātha and his śāsana-devată Padmāvati had occupied the pride of place. We, however, have no inscriptions specifically referring to these deities from those places.
In point of fact, the earliest direct epigraphical mention of Pārsvanātha occurs in the Aivarmalai inscription of Pandya Varaguna II dated Saka 792/A.D. 870-71. This is an important inscription from our point of view. It is engraved on a neatly dressed portion of the rock above a natural cave on the Aivarmalai hills in the village of Aiyampāļaiyam, Madurai District. What concerns us here is the statement contained in the inscription that śāntivīrakkuravar, the disciple (mānākkan) of Gunavīrakkuravadigal, renovated the image of Pārsvanātha and his Yakşi at Tiruvayirai (Tiruvayirai Pārisva-patāraraiyum=Iyakki-avvaigalaiyum pudukki) and also endowed 502 kāņam (gold coins) for food offerings to the two deities (irandakkumuttāv-avi) and for feeding, probably daily, one ascetic (adigal). The reference here is obviously to the reliefs of Pārsvanātha and Padmāvati engraved inside the cave. Since they had to be renovated in A.D. 870-71, we may reasonably suppose