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JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA (THE EARLY PHASE)
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dom. Madhava, one of the brothers, being so honoured, cut down a stone-pillar104 with his sword, which promoted Simhanandi to make a crown from the petals of the karnikāra blossom and place it on the heads of the brothers. He in addition gave them his peacock fan as their banner and in due course provided them with an army. This inscription also records the advice which that munipati gave those two brothers:
If you fail in what you promise, if you dissent from the Jaina śāsana, 15 if you take the wives of others, if you are addicted to spirits or flesh (madhumāmsa), if you associate with the base, if you give not to the needy, if you flee in battle, your race will go to ruin.
Thus with Nandagiri as their fort (kota), Kuvalāla (Kolar) as their city, Gangavādi as their kingdom, and jinamata as their faith, the two brothers Dadiga and Mādhava ruled their kingdom.
The account related in the above-mentioned stone is more or less legendary, but as we have already noted, the connection of Jaina Simhanandi with the foundation of the Ganga kingdom is known from other sources. Its account regarding the earlier history of the Ganga dynasty can be dismissed offhand. Its attempt to make Padmanabha the father of the two brothers (Dadiga and Madhava) is, to say the least, ridiculous. We know from the early and genuine Ganga copperplates, in including the Penukonda, that Padmanabha is the deity addressed in the first line of those records. Padmanābha is a popular name for Visnu, although according to the Jainas, 106 Padmanābha is the first Arhat of the future age. It is, however, most likely that the term 'Padmanabha' Ganga inscriptions refers to Lord Vişnu.
Simhanandi's connection with the founder of the Ganga dynasty is also confirmed by an old commentary of the Gommatasara.107 It thus appears to be a historical fact that Madhava I Konkanivarman, who founded the Western Ganga kingdom in the mid-fourth century AD, owes his success to the activities of a Jaina saint. There is however no direct evidence to prove that Mādhava I himself became a Jaina convert. Besides, an overwhelming majority of early western Ganga inscriptions are grants made to Brāhmanas and other non-Jainas. It appears, however, that the Western Ganga monarchs, beginning from the founder of the dynasty, nurtured a special love for Jainism, although no Jaina record from the reign of first few Ganga kings has yet been discovered.
