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Donation Pattern to the Jinalayas as gleaned from Kannada Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh
C.S. VASUDEVAN
The Kannada inscriptions from Andhra Pradesh throw light on various aspects of political, social, economic and religious conditions that prevailed during the early medieval and medieval period. There are as many as one thousand Kannada inscriptions that have been reported from Andhra Pradesh and we may sure that many would see the light of the day in the coming years. In this sequel, an attempt is made to understand the Kannada inscriptions of Jaina affiliation from Andhra Pradesh. Out of one thousand Kannada records, very few inscriptions provide information pertaining to Jaina religious order and also the socio-economic aspects. The inscriptions belong to Rashtrakuta, Chalukyas of Vemulavada, Chalukyas of Kalyana, Nolambas and the Vijayanagara dynasties, which fact testifies that Jainism was popular and enjoyed better status for over a period of five centuries. Of all these dynasties, it was during the Chalukyas of Kalyana times that Jainism received greater impetus and patronage, as attested to by the large number of their inscriptions. As already pointed out, it is attempted to reconcile and reconstruct the socio-economic aspects from the data as recorded in the Kannada inscriptions found in this region. The Kannada epigraphs of Jaina affiliation are found from the districts of Anantapur, Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Kurnool, Mahaboobnagar, Medak, Nalgonda Nizamabad and Warangal. And the maximum number of inscriptions is from Anantapur while the least is from Warangal.
The earliest inscription is from Velamjala dated to 907 A.D. and belongs to the reign of the Rashtrakuta king Akalavarsha (Krishna II). It records a gift of 100 mattars of land and a garden to a basadi by a certain Ravichandrayya, a subordinate of the king! Another inscription from Halaharavi also belongs to the same dynasty and mentions that the feudatory of the king Nityavarsha (Govinda IV) was Kannara who was ruling
This article is a revised and enlarged version of the article published in Kevalabodhi. The details are as follows: 'Kannada Inscriptions of Jaina Affiliation from Andhra Pradesh', Kevala Bodhi (Buddhist and Jaina History of the Deccan) - The BSL Commemorative Volume, (Ed.) Aloka Parasher-Sen,
Vol. II, pp. 291-298. Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh - Nalgonda (hereafter IAP, Nal.) I, No. 1; Vasudevan C. S., (Ed.), Kannada Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh (hereafter KIAP), No. 860. 2 South Indian Inscriptions (hereafter SII), IX, Pt. I, No. 62; (Also See. No. SII, IX, Pt. I, No. 60). Jainism in Andhra, No. 19; KIAP, No. 508.