Jain Journal 1969 04

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

Page 36

APRIL, 1969
chiefs. It is likely that Gandanarayana, Ammaraja's brother-in-law, patronised this establishment to please the king. Here in Pedamiram we find a Jaina figure.
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Kancumarru in the west Godavari district, Kalacumbarru of those days, was also a rendezvous for Jainas in the times of Ammaraja II. A certain lady Camekamba of the Pattavardhana lineage and a lay pupil of Arhanandi persuaded Ammaraja her master to donate a village Kalacumbarru through a copper plate inscription to a Jaina temple most probably raised by her in the name of the king. At present we do not see a Jaina temple at the spot. Probably the Nidadavol Calukyas who were feudatories of the Kakatiyas had destroyed this vasadi.
A third inscription yet of the time of Ammaraja II shows also that the construction of jinālayas was brisk during his ruling period. The king allowed a village Pedagadelaparru to be granted and two jinālayas were constructed at Vijayavada.
Bodhan or Podanapura is a very ancient town having been mentioned even in the Mahabharata. It was particularly endearing to the Jainas as the capital of Bahubali, the younger son of the first Tirthankara. A figure of Bahubali taller than that at Sravana Belgola was installed at Bodhan in prehistoric times but no trace of it now remains. In historic times as the capital of Rastrakuta Indra it had numerous Jaina temples and shrines.
Baddega, son of Arikesari though died young, constructed a big Jaina temple at Vemulavada. His son Arikesari III donated a village to a Jaina pontiff Somadeva Suri, author of Yasastilaka. We are not able to fix up the place where this temple would have stood in Vemulavada but the Parsvanatha figure installed in that temple is now erected in the present Rajesvaralaya inside the prākāra by the side of the gopura.
Epigraphical evidence confirms only one temple but there are as many as a dozen figures of the Jaina Tirthankaras. It is not probable that all these were housed in one temple. The figures range from the early Rastrakuta to the late western Calukyan period.
Kalyani Calukyan period-When the Rastrakutas overcame the Badami Calukyas and appropriated their kingdom in the 8th century, these latter were not completely destroyed. They continued to rule as feudatories from Annigeri, and round about 973 A.D. when Rastrakuta military strength was on the decline, they put up an end to the last