Jaina Corpus of Koppala Inscriptions X rayed

Author(s): Nagarajaiah Hampa
Publisher: Ankita Pustak

Page 29

10/Jaina Corpus of Koppala
In the Karnataka country, famous cities are, Kisuvolal olim Paṭṭadakal near Aihole, the well known great Kopanagara (the modern Koppala), Puligere olim Lakṣmeśvara, the highly praised Onkunda or Okkunda near Palasige (the modern Halsi), a residence of Banavāsi Kadambas, and the area in the midst of these towns is the quintessence of Kannada country, because these are the boundaries of the well of the plithy Kannada undefiled. This statement of Kavirājamārga ('poets avenue') confirms the state wide recognition of Kopaṇanagara as a leading city in the early ninth century.
While Śrīvijaya has registered the political and cultural aspect of Kopaṇanagara in placing it on par with other contemporary cities, Ranna (C. 950-1010), another Jaina author and a poetlaureate of the Calukya court, a protege of Attimabbe has brilliantly portrayed the sacrosanct picture of Kopana hill:
biliyaraleyante gangā
jaladantesevajitasena munipatiya guṇā
valiyante negalḍa kopaṇā
caladante pavitram attimabbeya caritam II
[Ranna, C.E. 993. Ajitapurāņa tilakam, canto-12, verse. 6.]
While eulogising the impeccable virtues of his patron Attimabbe, an unparalleled lady stalwart in the Calukya kingdom, poet Ranna has made use of some similies: the life of Attimabbe was immaculate like the white cotton, the holy water of the river Gangā, the merits of the chief abbot Ajitasena, and the farfamed Kopaṇa hill.
Kopana has been a centre of pilgrimage for all faiths; it is a living example of preching and practicing the age old policy of unity in diversity. Jainism, Śaivism, Vaiṣṇavism, Islam all the other religions, irrespective of major or minor, have lived by and large in harmony.
Koppala was under the rule of many a royal dynasties such as the Bādāmi Calukyas, the Gangas, the Rāṣṭrakūtas, the Kalyana Calukyas, the Hoysala and the Vijayanagara kingdom. Later, some muslim minor dynasties also ruled the region of
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