Jain Journal 1998 01

SR No.: 520129
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 42
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 9

68
JAIN JOURNAL : Vol-XXXII, No. 3 January 1998
4. Patasivaram
The village Patasivaram is also situated in the Madakasira taluka of the Anantapur district. It is evident from an epigraph dated A.D. 1185, that this village was a sacred place for the Jainas and also an abode of the illustrious Padmaprabha Maladhārideva, disciple of Viranandin Siddhanta Cakravatin of the Mula sangha, desigana and Pustaka gachcha. The inhabitants of this place in the 12th century A.D. were indeed fortunate to have the presence of an eminent teacher of Jaina law in Jaina literature and the author of a commentary, known as Tatparya-vritti on the treatise Niyamasara of Kundakundacharya.
5. Penukonda
Penukonda, the headquarters of the taluka of the name in the Anantapur district, possesses a few Jaina relics and temples. It appears to have attained a high status as a Jaina centre in the later period. Jinabhushana Bhattaraka, mentioned in the inscription lying in the Parsvanatha basadi of the place, was perhaps an early pontiff associated with this religion. According to the tradition, Penukonda is reckoned as one of the four Vidyāsthānas of the Jaina church along with Delhi, Kolhapur and Jina Kanchi. This tradition is also mentioned in a late inscription from the Kolhapur region.
Today. we see two Jaina temples namely of Ajitanatha and Parsvanatha there; they appear to have been built in the Vijayanagara style. On examining these two temples, one could find that the traditional stepped-pyramidal Sikhara was given up and the South Indian Sikhara was adopted even for Jaina temples during the Vijayanagara period.
6. Thagarakunda
Thagarakunda is a few miles west of Dharmavaram of Anantapur district. A small fortress, which is called the “Bhagavatula Gutta" by the villagers, could have been a Jaina resort which, perhaps, the villagers wrongly named the Jains as Bhagavatullu. A temple is there on a hill which has an inscription' built into its basement which says that Kumara Tailapa, son of Vikramaditya VI, granted lands, sites, gardens etc., to the basadi of Chandraprabha at (1) Thagarakunta, where Padamanandi Siddhanta Deva was the pontiff. Now we could trace the Jain antiquity at the place.
8. SII, IX, Pt. I, No. 278. 9. SII, IX, Pt. I, No. 221.