Jain Journal 1985 07

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

Page 19

14
JAIN JOURNAL
But Sri Sripal has opined in the booklet that the Adinath Jain temple belonged to the Cola period. I am at a loss to understand whether it was early or the latter Colas of Tamilnadu. His view is not supported by any trustworthy evidences. Therefore, Sripal's views that the temple belonged to the Cola period is ambiguous and un-understandable. Besides, the booklet contains nothing about the historicity of the temple but only some of the teachings of Emman, the Tamil name for Adi Bhagavan.
I read with abiding interest a Tamil book written by Sri Ekambaranathan, the popular epigraphist of Tamilnadu. The title of the book is Kalvettil Samanam or Jainism in stone cut Inscriptions. It was published by the Jain Youth Forum, Madras.
Sri Ekambaranathan has also written and published in the January 1984, issue of the Jain Journal, Calcutta, a brief article under the title
A Note on the Antiquity of the Adinath Temple at Pulal' an English version of his Pulal chapter about the temple published in his Kalvettil Samanam in Tamil. In the book as well as in the Note, Sri Ekambaranathan has referred to the Mackenzie Manuscripts edited by Dr. T. U. Mahalingam from which he has cited some parts in support of his views repudiating my claim about the antiquity of the Jain temple at Polal. According to him, the Mackenzie Collections of Manuscripts have mentioned the Jaina temple at Polal and associated its origin with the Kurumbas, a tribe belonging to Karnataka. These tribal people spread over to Tamilnadu upto Tondaimandalam and set up their rule under the
hieftainship of Kamanda who proclaimed himself as Kurumbaprabhu. Dravidadesadhipati Pulalraja. The Kurumbas were Jainas and they built many Jaina basatis of which one bearing the name of their Guru existed at Polal and the relics of others at Vikkinam Kalani and other places. The Kurumbas were annihilated by Adondai Cola of Tanjore and Vellala people established in the country. The Manuscripts have added further information that Adondai Cakravarti was an illegal son of Kulottunga Cola.
Sri Ekambaranathan has remarked that if the abovesaid informations are reliable, we may have to place the Kurumbas in the 11th century A.D. (i.e. contemporary to Kulottunga.) Taking this into consideration, the same period may be assigned to the Jaina temple at Polal built by the Kurumbas. The learned epigraphist has further stated that the historicity of the Mackenzie Collections is subject to severe criticisms.
The seven inscriptions found by Sri Ekambaranathan at Polal belonged to 13th, 14th and 15th centuries A.D. They were seen in the