________________
196
COMPREHENSIVB HISTORY OF JAINISM
Anantanātha is mentioned in an epigraph®, from Nellikara in South Kanara district, dated 1525 A.D.
An important copper-plate grantoi, found from Kāpa, in this district, dated Saka 149, corresponding to 1556 A.D., of the time of the Vijayanagara emperor Sadāśivarāya and his general Rāmarāya, mentions some grant for the local Dharmanātha templo. Several important monks like Devakirti, his disciple Municandra, and the latter's disciple Devacandra are also mentioned in this epigraph. The inscription also refers to a saint called Bhānumuniśvara, who belonged to the Kāŋura and Tintrini gaccha. The imprecetary passage at the end mentions Gommateśvara of Belgoļa, Candranātha of Kopaņa and Neminātha of Girnar. In another inscription from a place, called Māruru, in the same South Kanara district, dated 1598 A.D., there is a reference to the Pārśva temple of that place.62 A few other Jain epigraphs from this district, of our period, are also known.
Next to South Kanara, Mysore district has the largest number of Jain epigraphs, from South Karnatak, of our period. The earliest inscription's, of this period, was discovered from Honnenahalli in Hunsur tāluk of this district, and is dated Śaka 1225, corresponding to 1303 A.D. It mentions the local Jina temple, of this place, and records some gift by the monk Padmanandi, who belonged Hansoge branch, and was a disciple of Bāhubali Maladhārideva. Maleyūr in Chamrajnagar taluk of this district, which contains an earlier inscription dated 1181 A.D.*, has several epigraphs of our period. We have already seen that the Jina temple, of this place, was dedicated to Lord Pārsvanātha, which afterwards, came to be called by the name Vijayadeva or Vijayanātha temple. An epigraphos, from this place, records the installation of an image of Vijayadeva (probably Pārsvanātha) by a monk of Hanasoge branch. A more important epigraph, from this place, is dated in the Saka year 1344, corresponding to 1422 A.D.,
