Jain Journal 1985 07

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

Page 20

JULY, 1985
15
Saiva temple at Polal near about the Adinath temple. These inscriptions have recorded land grants and other endowments made to the same temple during the time of Sambuvaraya and Vijayanagar kings. They have not made any mention of the Jaina basati at Polal or its pallichandam lands in this area. Therefore, it is only from the Adinath sculpture found in the prakara of the temple, we may tentatively fix the date of the Adinath temple to be the 10th or 11th century A.D.
Madras State with the exception of Madura and Tinnevelly was under the administrative jurisdiction of Rajaraja Cola the Great and his son Rajendra Vikrama Cola of Tanjore. There is no record or evidence to show that these Cola kings of the 11th and 12th centuries A.D. built any Jaina temples in any parts of Madras State. The Cola kings were ardent Saivaites. I shall welcome from Tamil scholars that Rajaraja Cola and his son had built Jaina temples in Tamilnadu and would be happy to know the names of such temples and also the places where they were built.
Rajendra Cola the great and his son had a powerful navy with its Headquarters in the port city of Madras and they annexed Ceylon, the Andaman Islands and Pegu, a part of Burma. There must have been Cola officers and troops stationed in Madras city. Fragment of a pillar edict of Rajaraja Cola with Tamil inscriptions about 1100 years old was found near the St. Thomas Mount Cathedral near Madras city. It was an administrative order in stone issued by Rajaraja Cola the Great, who reigned from A.D. 985 to 1012. Cola supremacy reached its peak about A.D. 1035 at the end of Rajaraja Cola.? Is it possible for the Kurumbas to occupy Polal in the 11th Century A.D. when this village was under the jurisdiction of the two mighty Cola kings of Tanjore ? Therefore, the invasion of Polal by Kurumbas was not only an impossible task against the might of the Colas but also it is an unimaginable adventure which no invader would attempt to undertake involving his complete annihilation on the battle field.
All these historical evidences would prove that the Adinath temple was not built by the Colas of the 19th century A.D. and the Kurumba occupation of Polal in the 11th century A.D. was not at all true.
The inscriptions of the Siva temple found at Polal have not mentioned the Adinath temple which proves that the Jaina temple was not in existence when the inscriptions were engraved in view of the fact that the
* Rev B.A. Figredo, Voices from the Dust.