________________
150
JAIN JOURNAL
mereva karūranenisalālipori stita sandhyar indu vand erega samantu kalneleya-devara pada-payoruhaṁgalol sthāvara-jangama-tirtham bhāvisi peldägal orade gommaţadovar sthāvara-tirthaṁ kalneledevar bhūvalayadolage jangama-tirtham beldevam baredan ilvede mallacāri,12
I had also, in the meanwhile, written to Dr, J. P. Jain (Lucknow) seeking some clarifications on this problem. He, in his letter (dated 30.4.1981), kindly drew my attention to the last passage on p.42 of his paper13 and reiterated his views expressed in it. The following lines in the passage deserve special attention : "...There is nothing in the record to identify the first two or to fix its date. Yet presuming the ruler to be identical with Ereya, the Ganga king (C.907-913 A, D.), the date of thc erection of the Gommaţa image has been fixed as 907 A. D. Apart from the fact that this date is impossible for historical reasons, as discussed earlier, a ruler named Ereya, the father of Vişnuvardhana Hoysala, and a Guru named Kalneledeva of Surastha-gana are known to have belonged to about the end of the 11th century A.D. Hence in all probability the inscription in question belongs to that period and not to the beginning of the 10th century..."
After carefully taking into consideration the relevant parts of these two papers of the two learned scholars and scrutinzing the concerned Report and the Inscription, I have to present the following observations :
A pet name is generally given in child-hood and this could be true of Cåmundarāya. Ācārya Nemicandra even recorded his former friend's and later pupils name as Gommața and, Gommațarāya14 etc. Then things associated with Gommața or Gommațarāya were also called after his name : Gommața-Jina, Gommața-śilā, Gommața-sutta or Gom
atasära and also Gommateśa or Gommaţadeva. On the other hand Bahubali, the aseetic Lord, could not have been called 'Gommața' first
12 Epigraphia Carnatica, Vol. XIV, Mysore, 1943. 13 Loc. Cit. 14 Vide Gommat asaru, Karma-kanda, Part II, V, 972, Lucknow, 1937,
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
