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JINA PĀRSVA AND HIS TEMPLES IN INSCRIPTIONS:
SOUTHERN INDIA (KARNATAKA)
(c. 5th to 11th century A.D.)
Madhav N. Katti
Karnataka, ancient and medieval Karnātadēśa, was for long a stronghold of Jainism. As a result, throughout the historical period, several Jaina temples and often inscriptions referring to the construction of, and endowments to the temples for various tirtharkaras are known in fair number. Almost all the sub-territories of Karnataka can boast of temple-building activities connected with the Jaina deities for about one and a half millennium. However, as in the case of Saivite and Vaişnavite temples, many buildings, for which we have the testimony of inscriptions, have not survived. Nonetheless, these inscriptions amply reflect the prosperous times Jainism once had enjoyed in Karnataka.
All of the important ruling dynasties of Karnataka, commencing with the Kadambas, and their feudatories, supported different religions in their dominions. Scores and scores of temples for many different divinities, including those of the Jaina pantheon, were constructed. The rulers, their consorts, princes, feudatories and chieftains, and their generals or military governors made munificent donations to such temples for the daily worship of, and offerings to the deities as well as for the maintenance, repairs, and renovations of the temples, irrespective of their personal faith. Thus, during the reign of the Kadambas of Vanavāsī, the Cālukyas of Vātāpi, the Rāstrakūtas of Mānyakhețaka, the Cālukyas of Kalyāna, and still later the Hoysaļas, the Kaļacūryas as also some minor dynasties to whose reign-period the subject of our discussion pertains, a number of Jaina temples came to be constructed. The élite of the society together with the laity, too, lent their share as patrons. Among the Jaina sects, the Svetāmbara or Svetapata and the Nirgrantha (possibly the surviving remanant of the sect of Pārsvanātha) had been much less important compared to the Yāpaniya and the Digambara orders, the latter represented by the Mula Sangha and the Drāvida Sangha had considerable following in Karnataka.
Amongst the Jaina deities, Pārsvanātha occupied a very prominent place as several inscriptions refer to the construction of the temples or vasatīs, called basadis in Kannada, for this deity. The images of the Jina were in most examples shaped in
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