Jain Journal 1969 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 34

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JAIN JOURNAL
The Padmaksi temple at Honumankonda appears now as a plain brick śikhara rising over a huge boulder. The sikhara and ardhamaņdapa are evidently later constructions. The shrine actually consists of a Tîrthankara in the standing posture with his yaksa and yaksi. All round the Padmaksi temple are a number of natural caves which served as residences for them. Who the Tirthankara of the temple could be it is not possible to say. The yakși carved by his side however is called Padmaksi. This establishment was contemporaneous with Bhima Salki.
Gunaga Vijayaditya the ruler of Vengi was a trusted feudatory of Amoghavarsa and during his reign Jainism spread far and wide in the Vengimandala. We do not have epigraphical evidence, but from the indications of sculpture we can say that at Jallur (near Pithapuram) and Ramatirtham, Jainism was well establsihed.
At Ramatirtham there are two caves deepened just to accommodate a few monks. On the Gurubhakta hill at a distance of half a mile from this one are natural caves sheltering Jaina Tirthankaras. It appears that the Ramatirtham Jaina establishment was first started at the Gurubhakta hill and spread to the Durgakonda later.
At Danavulapadu in the Jammalamadugu taluk of the Cuddapah district there was in the period of Nityavarsa Indra III (914-917) a very big Jaina establishment. For a distance of a mile and more the Jainas built a stone embankment to prevent river Pennar from carrying away the mud of the embankment. They constructed two flights of steps to help people get down to the river. However, the entire town got buried in sand raised year after year by the monsoon winds. It was discovered and excavated by the late J. Ramaya Pantulu. Two Jaina temples, four tomb stones, two caumukhas, one pedestal of a Tirthankara, two ten-feet high figures of Parsvanatha and a figure of Padmavati were unearthed.
Durgaraja, the grandson of Panduranga, the able general of Gungavijayaditya, built a temple south of Dharmavaram for Jainas with the permission of Amma II. Durgaraja was kațakābharaṇa, the jewel of the generals, and the temple was named the Katakabharana jinālaya. Durgaraja donated through a copper plate grant a village Milliampudi to the temple to defray the expenses of regular routine worship at the temple. The pontiff of the Jaina community there was Srimandiradeva of the Kotimaduva gana and Yapaniya samgha.
In Pedamiram near Bhimavaram in the west Godavari district there was a Jaina palli established by the kind patronage of the Kolani