Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs

SR No.: 011025
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: P B Desai
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1957
Total Pages: 495
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 33 MB

Page 416

JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA
describing a gift made by Mahāmaņdalēsvara Lakshmarasa, the governor of Banavāsi, it introduces the donee śāntinātha Bhattāraka as a member of the Mūla Sangha and Chandrikāvāța-vamsa. In a previous context we have dealt with the teachers of the Chandrikāvāta lineage who originally hailed from the Bijapur Dt. and later settled in the Dharwar region. The said śāntinatha seems to have been connected with this line. Another inscription of about the 13th century, from Mötebennūr, invokes the succour of Chandranāthasvāmi and mentions the teacher Jinachandra.
From Artāl in the Bankapur taluk hails an inscription introducing the teacher Kanakachandra of the Müla Saṁgha and Krāņār gaņa. This is dated circa A. D. 1123. An epigraph bearing no date from Kalkēri in the Mundargi Petha, noticed earlier, also furnishes information about the teachers of the same gana (Kāņūr) and Tintriņi gachchba, that had settled there. These were Bhānukirti Siddhāntadēva who sponsored the erection of a Jaina temple and Akalankachandra Bhattāraka of Kalikere in whose favour it was set up.
In an undated inscription from Mākanūro in the Rāņēbennür taluk figures the preceptor Nandibhattāraka of the Mula Samgha and Sūrastha gaņa. Another preceptor of the same gaņa, by name Sahasrakīrti, finds mention in an incompletely dated epigraph at Mantagi’ in the Hangal taluk. From two other inscriptions discovered here Mantagi appears to have been a busy centre of Jaina activities. One of these dated A. D. 1166 states that Kalidēva Setti of Panthipura, i. e., Hāngal, constructed a temple for the deity Chaturvimśati Tirthakara and endowed it suitably. Nāgachandra Bhattāraka who was the priest of this temple received the gift. The other epigraph of about the sanie period enumerates several gifts made to different Jaina temples of the place by the Kadamba chiefs Harikēsaridēva. Harikāntadēva and Tovimarasa. This record mentions Uppamtāychana Basadi of Bankāpura and Kontimahādēviya Basadi.8
The patronage received by the Jaina faith at the hands of the royal household of the Dāvagiri Yādavas is illustrated by an inscription at Tadkod in the Dharwar taluk. This is dated in the 14th year of Ramachandra and Chitrabhānu, corresponding to a. D. 1282 and reveals that a Jaina temple was caused to be constructed by Sarvādhikāri Māyadēva under the orders of the king's
1 An. Rep. etc. for 1933-34 App. E, No. 113. 2 See above, pp. 134 ff. 3 Op. cit., No. 108. 4 An. Rep. on S. I. Epigraphy, 1943-44 and 1944-45, App. F, No. 1. 6 Ibid., 1927-28, App. E, No, 51. 6 Ibid., 1934-36, App. E, No. 50. 7 Ibid., 1947-48, App. B, No. 210. 8 Ibid., No. 207-208.