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Jina Pārśva and his Temples in Inscriptions
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that they must have been originally carved long before that date, perhaps a few centuries earlier.
Some three decades ago, on a hillock at Alattūr (Palghat District) was discovered a Jaina temple site in ruins. Amidst the ruins were found the images of Mahāvīra, Pārsvanātha, and a partially damaged Vatteluttu inscription' of about the tenth century A.D. The inscription refers to one main Jaina temple or shrine as Nalañjiyar-palli and to an unknown number of subsidiary temples or shrines as vali-ppalligal. We also gather from the inscription that the main Jaina deity of that place was called Tirukkunavāyttēvar, but we have no means of knowing whether this local name was conferred on Mahāvīra or Pārsvanātha.
Colavāndipuram (South Arcot District, Tamil Nadu) flourished as an important Jaina centre in the 10th-11th centuries as evidenced by sculptures carved on the groups of boulders on the hillock called Andimalai at that place. 10 Of particular interest here is a pair of huge boulders leaning against each other; in the recess between these boulders is found a loose slab, about 4 feet high, with a fairly ancient sculpture of the Jaina goddess Padmāvati cut on it in high relief. On the sides of the boulders facing each other on either side of the goddess are two panels, one containing in bold relief the figure of Gommata or Bahubali and the other, that of Pārsvanātha. Near the Gommața figure is engraved a small inscription" in Tamil characters of about the tenth century recording the erection of a Tevāram(-Debära), a divine abode, the divinities meant here obviously being Pārsvanātha, his Yaksi Padmāvatī, and Gommata, by a private individual named Vēli Kongaraiyar Puttadiga!. The goddess Padmāvati is today locally known as Käliyamman, thus shorn of her original Jaina association.
Nāgarkovil is now in the Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, but formerly formed part of the Travancore State. The place name is derived from Nāgar + kõil which literally means the temple of the Nāga deity. The temple, originally a Jaina one, has a long history of being earlier mistaken for a Brahmanical fane, of Anantālvār, on the erroneous premise (or argument of convenience) that the hooded serpent, the characteristic emblem of Pārsvanātha, was Adiśeșa! A number of inscriptions in this temple, all belonging to the early years of the 16th century, mention the Nāga deities and the god Nāgaraja of Kottaru alias Mummudisolapuram and also refers to the Jaina supervisors of the temple, Gunavīra-pandita and Kamalavāhana-pandita. What is more, images of Jina Mahāvīra and Arhat Pārśva are found sculptured on the pillars of the mandapa in front of the Nāgarāja shrine. From this it is apparent that the Nāgarkoil was a Jaina temple, that the Jaina deity Pärsvanātha had come to be called Nāgarāja after his Nāga emblem, and that the effective conversion of the temple into
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