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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
this epigraph that another Rāstrakūta feudatory, namely Rāttayya, who was of Cälukya lineage, donated some land, for the temple erected by Sankaraganda II, and Nāganandi Paņạita Bhatāra received the endowment on behalf of the temple. This saint is described here as a disciple of Vinayanandi, who in turn was a pupil of Srinandi of Surastha gana. From other inscriptions we learn that Sūrastha or Surastha gana was associated with the Sena gana of Mula Samgha.157
A few other Jaina inscriptions of the reign of Krşņa III are known. One such inscription158 has been discovered from Tirumalai hill near Polür (North Arcot) in Tamil Nadu, which records the gift of a lamp made to the yaksa on the sacred Tirumalai hill by a servant of the queen of Krsna III. This hill was associated with the Jaina religion from early times. Over a dozen Jaina epigraphs and a number of rock-cut Jaina figures have been discovered from the same hill. The village near this hill, which bears same name, still harbours a few Jaina families. 159 We should also mention another Jaina inscription of the time of Krsna III, found from Naregal in the Ron tāluk of Dharwar district. According to this, the wife of Ganga Bütuga II, called Padmabbarasi, constructed a Jaina temple at Naregal, and in AD 950 the grant of a tank to the charity house attached to the temple was made by a subordinate chief called Namayara Mārasimghayya. The gift was received by Gunacandra, the pupil of Viranandi, who was a pupil of Mahendra Pandita belonging to the Kondakunda anvaya of Desiya gaña.
The celebrated Jaina poet Somadeva wrote his encyclopaedic work Yaśastilakacampū during the reign of this great Rāstrakūta monarch in the Saka year 881 when that emperor was stationed at Melapāți!61 which has been identified with Melpadi in North Arcot district of Tamil Nadu. The same place is also mentioned in the Karhad plates262 of Krsna III dated Saka 880 and Karjol inscription 163 dated Saka 879. I shall have more to say on Somadeva's literary achievements in a later chapter of this volume. Another Jaina literary figure, namely Indranandi Yogindra, composed his Jvālāmālinikalpa 64 at Malkhed in Saka 861 during the reign of Krsna III.
We have a few Jaina inscriptions of the reign of Khottiga, the brother and successor of Krsna III. An inscription from Chitaldurg district dated ap 968 mentions the fact that Jakki Sundarī, the wife of Pandayya, a Cālukyan feudatory of Khottiga built a Jaina temple, for which her husband gave a grant.165 Another inscription, prais
