Jaina Corpus of Koppala Inscriptions X rayed

Author(s): Nagarajaiah Hampa
Publisher: Ankita Pustak

Page 21

2 / Jaina Corpus of Koppaļa
sort, a sacred hillock of excellence. Thus, Koppaļa was completely over run by Jainism. “Besides, an account of its geographical position, Kopaņa seems to have been placed in very congenial circumstances, especially political, that contributed to its rapid growth as a Mahā-tirtha" [Desai:
1957:157) 1.2 Because Koppaļa was a dominant place and a treasure
house of Jaina art, architecture, sculpture and literature, it has, through ages, produced an immense amount of significant archeological and art historical material. Hundreds of Jaina shrines, monasteries, satras ['feeding houses'), friaries [muni-nivāsas] in this principal town, ranging in date between 7th and 16th cent. attracted the male and female monach and lay votaries. "We note that in the seventh century A.D. Kopana was essentially a Jaina tirtha. Epigraphic evidence prove this. In the Halageri inscription of the western Chālukya king Vijayāditya [A.D. 696-733] mention is made of this great Jaina sanctuary" [Saletore:192]. Though Koppaļa was reckoned as the foremost and supreme sacred tirtha, a holy resort of Jaina order, solid and valid proof to establish it as an historical truth, was lacking. Koppaļa has not yet been properly surveyed and examined with extensive and intensive field work; the researches conducted since the days of B.L. Rice, are
scanty and meagre. NEW MATERIAL DISCOVERED
2.0
In the year 1992, unprecedented heavy rains lashed at several parts of the Karņāțaka state in general and at Koppaļa in particular, as a result of which a portion of the Old-Fort at Koppaļa collapsed. Surprisingly enough, a hoard of inscriptions on slabs and pillars, about 70 in number fell out of the Fort-Wall. Curiously, all of these inscriptions, without a single exception, are Jaina epigraphs, that too niśidhikas, which throw fresh light on the apropos of Koppala as a Jaina seat.
2.1
It was my fortune that I could take out an estampage of all these new epigraphs, decipher the script, read the text,