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Arbat Pårśva and Dharanendra Nexus
stone in Karnataka. Today, in several cases, we come across the sculptures lying in different regions of the State on account of the dilapidated condition of the temples, and in a number of cases due to the original buildings' destruction. And yet, as a matter of delight, a good number of temples not only exist but are under worship even to this day.
The majority of inscriptions (which form the source material of the present paper), are in Kannada language and script, while a few are in Sanskrit. Both Kannada as well as Sanskrit languages are together employed for the rest of inscriptions. The script of the Sanskrit inscriptions is Southern Brāhmi in the early centuries of the Christian Era; while in the later centuries, it is Kannada. The epigraphs highlight various socio-cultural and religious aspects of the contemporaneous times. In some cases the details of date are lost and for these the palaeographic dating is resorted to. I will discuss here some of the more important and interesting inscriptions as evidence for Pārsvanatha's shrines, and the grants made to them for conducting daily worship and offerings to the deities of such buildings and for buildings' repairs and refurbishment during different centuries.
There is a Pārsvanātha basadi in Sravanabelgola (Hassan District), which traditionally is believed to preserve the memories of Maurya emperor Candragupta, Arya Bhadrabāhu, and various other personages. However, there are no inscriptions referring to the construction of a basadi, installation of the deity, etc. at that age on this haloed hill. A number of epigraphs otherwise refer to the deity Pārsvanātha; but they all belong to the 11th and later centuries. The rock-cut Jaina cave (No. IV) in Bādāmī, Bijapur District, possesses perhaps the earliest image of Pārsvanātha in its forelobby. This belongs to the early Cālukya period. While there are no contemporaneous epigraphs in the cave, on stylistic grounds the cave and its sculptures of the Calukya phase are believed to be of the period of Mangaleśa. Earlier than this, in the Kadamba period, there is an interesting reference to a Jaina deity in a copperplate charter belonging to the 4th regnal year of king Mrgeśavarmana assignable to the late 5th century A.D. This charter refers to bhagavat-arhat-mabājinendra, without mentioning the name of the tirtharkara. Further discoveries alone can shed light if Pārsvanātha was here intended or implied. The charter was granted combinely to the Svetapața-mahā-śramaņa sangha and the Nirgrantha order.
Though the inscriptions of the period of the Cālukyas, and following them of the Rāștrakūtas, mention about the erection of temples to the Jaina deities, there is no reference to Jina Pārsvanātha directly during those periods. There is, however, a figure of Pārsvanātha on the rocky hill of Adõni near Bellary (presently in Kurnool
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