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JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA (THE EARLY PHASE)
121
Jaina temple at Pulliura village of Korikunda-bhāga. We have already noticed this inscription in connection with Pallava Simhavişnu. The reference to the well-known Yapanīya Samgha is quite interesting. This inscription and that referred to above, show Avinita's close and intimate relationship with the Digambara Jainas of various groups. This inscription, as we have already noticed, testifies to the contemporaneity of Pallava Simhavişņu and Ganga Avinīta, and is therefore of great historical importance. However, there are reasons to believe, and as will be shown elsewhere, that Avinīta was a senior contemporary of Simhavişnu.
The third Jaina inscriptions of the reign of Avinīta is now the property of the Lutheral Museum, Basel (Switzerland). It refers to Kongunimahādhiraja Avinīta and also gives the date Saka 388. It was found in the Mercara treasury (Coorg district, Karnataka) but the inscription is clearly a later forgery as is evident from the details given regarding the date and nakṣatra, and also the script which is clearly of the eighth or ninth century AD. However, the details regarding Avinīta's predecessors in this inscription, are the same as those found in genuine Ganga records. It appears therefore that the inscription was forged at a later date by some intelligent Jaina monks, who had access to official Ganga records. They have even cleverly given some of the names of witnesses found in genuine early records.
This forged grant further refers to a minister of Akalavarsa Prthivivallabha' who was probably a Rāştrakūta king. But what a minister of a Rāstrakūta king had to with a grant of a Ganga ruler is not clear. Probably the forgery was made during the days of the Rāştrakūtas. Besides, the reference to the anvayq (lineage) of Kundakunda appears highly suspect.
This forged inscription gives the following list of the Jaina ācāryas of the anvaya of Kundakunda:
Gunacandra-bhatāra
Abhayanandi-bhatāra
śīlabhadra-bhatāra
Jayanandi-bhatāra
Gunanandi-bhatāra
Candranandi-bhatāra
