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THE JAINA TEMPLES IN KARNATAKA-A CANONICAL STUDY
abhisheka of Jinendra. Obviously this refers to a, Jaina temple. Another inscription of the same king refers to the worship of Jinendra for which four nivartanas of land was granted According to this inscription King Ravivarma built a temple, kamajinalaya for Manmatha, very near the palace (rajavesma) and arranged for its worship by granting lands. At the same time he also gave grants to Kamajinalaya at Hakinipalli and Padmavati temple at Kalliligrama. Dr. B.R. Gopal who has edited this inscription has suggested that this Kamajinalaya is a temple for Bahubali, as Bahubali is described as Manmatha. If this is so, the tradition of erecting gommata sculptures goes back to the period of Kadambas and to sixth century A.D. itself. However, Dr. A. Sundara has discovered a sculpture of Rati and Manmatha at the same place. Whether this was the sculpture worshipped in the Kamajinalya cannot be ascertained. What is more important is the tradition of building Jaina temples for Manmatha and even Padmavati.
A. Sundara's field work at Halasi throws very important light on this point. Very close to the Kallesvara temple at Halasi, he discovered an ancient site going back to megalithic and early historic periods. A large number of brick walls of the ancient period have been noticed by him in and around and abviously he thinks that this represents the Jaina temple built during the Kadamba period. Full scale excavations at Halasi and Gudnapur are bound to yield the brick temples of this earlyperiod.
This is attested to by many inscriptions including that of the Aihole inscription of Pulakesi II, composed by the famous poet Ravikirti Incidentally this is an eloquent testimony to the religious tolerance of the kings and the people during the period.
Kaliyamma built a temple at Annigeri; the Jinalaya at Hallur; the Jinalaya built by Dharmagamunda at Adur in Hangal taluk. The Meguti Jinendralaya was built in 634 A. D. by Ravikirti Sendraka Durgasakti, a feudatory of Pulakesi Il is said to have given gifts to this temple.u It is possible that it may be earlier or atleast contemporary to the Meguti temple. Many other inscriptions show that this was an important Jaina temple during the period. an inscription of Vinayaditya dated 686 A.D. refers to a grant to Jaina acharya of Devagana and mulasangha.12 Another epigraph of the time of Vijayaditya dated 729 A. D. mentions a grant to Niravadya Pandita who was to house pupil of Sri Pujyapada. 13 Still another inscription of the time of Vikramaditya Il dated 734 A. D. mentions gifts to Sveta Jinalaya.14
Amoghavarsha I used to consider himself purified by the very remembrance of his guru Jinasenacharya. He is also described as a follower of Syadvada. He had appointed the famous Jaina saint Gunabhadra as the teacher for his son Krishna. Krishna gave liberal donations to the Jaina temple at Mulgund. Indra was a devoted Jaina and he died committing Sallekhana. Many of the Rashtrakuta feudatories like Rattas of Saundatti were staunch supporters of Jainism, From all these evidences Altekar estimates that atleast one third of the total population of the Deccan during the period were Jains.
It is believed that this temple was built either during the time of Amoghavarsha 1 (814874 A.D.) or Krishna I (c. 770 A.D.). From the stylisticfeatures ninth century A,D, seems to be reasonable for this temple.
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