________________
JINA PĀRSVA AND HIS TEMPLES IN INSCRIPTIONS: SOUTHERN INDIA (C. 5TH TO 11TH CENT. A.D.) ANDHRA PRADESH, KERALA, AND TAMIL NADU
K.V. Ramesh
The topic originally assigned to me included only Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, two diagonally placed states in which epigraphical references even to Jainism in general, let alone 'Pārsvanātha and his temples' in particular, are hard to come by. Shri K.G. Krishnan's pre-occupations elsewhere, which came in the way of his participating in this Seminar, and his affection for me led him to hand over Tamil Nadu to me and made available some more material which enabled me to add a couple of pages to the paper which, in any case, is a brief affair because of the paucity of epigraphical information. This is not to say that Pārsvanātha finds no place in the religious records of the three States under reference. What is meant is that, although the sculptural representations of Pārśva and his attendant deities are met with fairly frequently in the context of ancient and medieval rock-cut reliefs and structural temples in several past and present Jaina centres in these States, not many of them are backed by the presence of direct or even indirect epigraphical records or references. I have included in this paper only those sites which have sculptures of Pārsva and his attendant deities side by side with inscriptions referring to them, directly or indirectly. While speaking of Jainism in South India, an historical fact of sterling significance which we keep in mind is that Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, which lie to the west and east of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, had more or less completely overshadowed the two latter States in the matter of receiving and playing host to Jainism. Of the three regions of my concern, the ancient Andhra country, which had maintained very close alliance with the Magadhan power nucleus from very early times, had played host to Buddhism in a big way. The meeker in numerical strength because of its sterner ascetic discipline and consequent austerity and hence less attractive Jaina religion followed the line of least resistance and entered Karnataka, thence waded its way further south into Tamil Nadu and Kerala and was, in early and later historical times, also carried sporadically to places here and there in Andhra Pradesh. We must recognize the fact that in Andhradēśa, the patrons of Jainism were mostly rulers and people who were either invaders or migrants from Karnataka who
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
