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 81

3. JAINISM IN TAMIL NAD Underneath this image is engraved an inscription of a like 'nature belonging approximately to the same age. The epigraph states that the holy image was carved by one Valla Udana Šeruvotti.' Mutilated idols of Yakshis have been found in this place and also elsewhere in this area.
CHETTIPATTI EXCAVATIONS: Chettipatti is another interesting spot in the same region which has yielded a large number of ancient Jaina vestiges. In a large mound called Samaņarkundu or 'the mound of Jaina monks', near this place, excavations have been conducted since 1936. These have revealed the existence of two big structural temples surrounded by compound walls, containing some smaller shrines inside, the pl which have stepped approaches similar to those found in the shrines of Ceylon of this period. The style of the temples is that of the early Chola period of about the 9th and the 10th centuries A. D. A large number of images representing the Tirthakaras and other deities of the Jaina pantheon has also been unearthed. Of the inscriptions found here one belongs to the time of the Chola king Rājarāja I. Another of about the 10th century A. D. mentions a Jaina teacher named Matisāgara who was the preceptor of Dayāpāla and Vadiraja.
REGION OF MADURA: The next object of our enquiry is the region of Madurā which comprises roughly the present day Madura Dt. This area, apart from other vestiges, is characteristicly rich in three kinds of antiquities: i) natural caverns and hills bearing rock-out beds and Brāhmi inscriptions; ii) figures of Jaina deities and preceptors carved on the rock; and, iii) early epigraphs in Vutteluttu alphabet and Tamil language by their side. Judging from these valuable relics along with other useful sources, we might well describe this tract as the cradle of the Jaina religion.
VICINITY OF Madura: In spite of the absence of conspicuous relics which evidently have been submerged or destroyed under the sweeping tide of the Brahmanical faiths' the city of Madura itself appears to have been a flourishing centre of the Jaina faith under the fostering patronage of the early Pandya kings who had this ancient place as their favoured capital. If we take into account the epigraphical and archaeological evidence we have been able to marshal in this chapter on the early advent of Jainism in the Tamil land, there seems to be little reeson to disbelieve the veiw that the socio-religious activities sponsored by the advocates of Jaina Law in the Tamil land oalwinated in the foundation of the Mala Samgha by Kuņdakundãohārya in as early an age as the first century B. 0.
I Padnkkottai State Inscriptions, vol. I, No. 10. 2 Manual of Pudukkottai State, Vol. II, pt. ii, p. 1082. 3 Compare for instance the paintings on the wall of the Mtaakskt temple at Madara
which depict the scenes of pers coation of the Jainas; Studies ia s. I. Jainism, p. 78.