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COMPREHENSIVB HISTORY OF JAINISM
number of places, intimately connected with Jainism. Some of them will, once more, be noticed in the chapter on Jain tirthas. A few places which too, have yielded Jain epigraphs, will also be noticed, in that chapter.
Jain Epigraphs from Chitradurga district :--Not many Jain epigraphs have been discovered from this district of Karnatak. We will take note here of only three Jain epigraphs of this district. The earliest One*o*, dated in the Călukya Vikrama year 53, corresponding to 1128 A.D., was found from Sabnur, situated in Devanagare taluk. It refers to the reigning monarch Someśvara III (1126-38), who too, was known as Tribhuvanamalla. The epigraph refers to a temple of Pārsvanātha, which was built at Sambapūru (modern Sabnur), by Käliyakke, the wife of Dandādhipa Sürya, a general of Pandya, a Câlukyan feudatory. The priest of this temple, to whom a gift of land was given, for the maintenance of the temple was Śåntiśayana Papdita, who belonged to the Dravida Sangha and Arungalānvaya. Several monks of this line, have been mentioned in this epigraph. Both Dandădhipa Sürya and his wife were great Jain devotees.
The next Jain inscription from Chitradurga district is dated 1154 A.D. It was discovered from Hollakere. This copper plate records 908 the renovation of the dilapidated Śiva temple of this place, dedicated to Säntinātha, by one Pārsvasena Bhattāraka of the Mülasangba. The third Jain inscription 206, from this district, is dated in 1271 A.D., during the reign of the Yādava king Råmacandra. The cpigraph mentions the erection of a Jina temple of the name of Lakshmi jinalaya at Betürū, situated in Devangere taluk of Chitradurga district, by one Kūcirāja, a feudatory of Rāmacandra's governor Rāmadeva. This Kūcirāja was certainly a devoted Jain, as his guru was Padmasena Bhattāraka. We are further told that Lakshmi jinalaya, built by Kūcirāja, was dedicated to Pārsvanātha. The temple was given by Kicirāja to the monks of Mülasangha, Senagana
