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JAINA BIBLIOGRAPHY
1205
In course of time he has a son who was named Yasodhara after his own father. Śridhara appointed his son to the kingdom and went away to his former abode on the mountain of Rishiniväsa and again performing vratas, attained nirvāṇa.
The mountain Rishinivāsa got the name of 'Sriparvata' because of Sridhara's stay there for a long time and his attainment of Siddhi. Because he attained mukti under a banyān tree to the south of Sriparvata, that place was called 'Siddhavața'. The place where the four kinds of deva groups assembled to perform jñānabpājā to Śrīdhara came to be known as “Amaravati', and the place where Khecharas worshipped with mallika flowers while Sridhara was doing penance under the arjuna tree, became renowned as Mallikarjunam. The place at which vriddhas or elders of the State were said to have been saying, got the name of ‘Vriddhagiri'. Yaśodhara (son of Sridhara) was nicknamed Mundiyasuta or son of the shaven monk and hence his lineage came to be known as Mundiyavamsa.
In the lineage of these Ikshvakus was born a king called Dhanda (a Jain). He ruled the country of Vengi with Pratipālapur as his capital. One day while 'Charanarishis' who were flying in the air, king Dhanda showed them to Sanghasri, his father-in-law, Dhandapura alias Chandavolu is very near Bhattiprolu; Pratipālapura the capital of Dhanda may be identical with Bhattiprolu.
Sanskrit lexicons give the name 'Kubera' as another name for Dhanda. The Komatis, lords of the Penugonda, of the Telugu country were described in inscriptions as the descendants of Kubera, Dhanda or Vittesa. What is the meaning of Komati? No interpretation for the Telugu term 'Komati' seems sound except the one suggested by Mr. CHICKURI Virabhadrarão--these Komatis were originally the devotees of Gommateswara, the Jain divinity. Dhanda or Kubera, the ancestor of the Komatis, also was a Jain. It is but natural that the descendants of Dhanda, the Komatis, should also be Jains.
The story in the Dharmāmrita contains some historical facts suggesting that Jainism was introduced into the Telugu country and patronised by the Ikshvakus, who were lains to start with. Traditions embodied in the epigraphs confirms the emigration of the Ikshvakus to the South and their adherence to the Jainism. Jainism was flourishing in the Andhra Empire of the Sātavāhanas. From the time of the reign of Khäravela, the king of Kalinga, onwards we can trace the progress of Jainism in the Telugu country on the basis of epigraphical evidence, although it is meagre.
1262
V. Ramachandra DIKSHITAR -Early History of Jainism in South India. (A.I.O.C., Session VIII ; 1935) P. 78.
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