Jaina Corpus of Koppala Inscriptions X rayed

Author(s): Nagarajaiah Hampa
Publisher: Ankita Pustak

Page 44

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Theme and aim of the epigraphs / 25
and nuns were preservers of the teaching, and through them the gospel of the Tirthankaras passed on from generation to generation.
Again, it is these and other powerful and efficacious preceptors, preachers, propagators mainly responsible in mustering the royal patronage to Jainism which was instrumental in the spread of the creed.
Another salient feature of the corpus of Koppala inscriptions is that, the ascetics instrumental in getting the DhavalaTikā copied and preserved to the posterity, were connected to Koppala-tirtha.
Māghanandivrati, a scholar pupil of Meghacandravrati, for whom the queen Mallikabbe and her husband Säntisena alias Sāntinātha got the Mahābandha, a canonical text, copied by Udayaditya, an expert copyist, to commemorate the holy occasion of closing and concluding the observance of Śripañcamivrata, was attached to the Koppala-tirtha.
Following pontiffs, mentioned in the prasasti, colophon portion of Jayadhavala-Ṭikä, are all mentioned in the present corpus of Koppala inscriptions: Padmanandi Siddhanta munindra, Ravicandra, Pūrṇa-candra, Dāmanandi, Maladhari (I and II), Śridharadeva, Nemicandra Maladhari, Candrakirti, Diväkaraṇandi Siddhantadeva (1060-80), his chief pupil Maladhāri Yamina (1080-1100) [his eminent pupil Subhacandra Siddhanti (1100-21) is not mentioned in this corpus].
Still more significant factor is that, some of the verses and prose lines that occur in the colophon of Dhavala-Ṭikā have their source here in the present collection.
Koppala inscriptions also establish the fact that the Jaina patriarchs and preceptors of Koppala had their contacts with the pontiffs at Annigere, Arasiyabiḍi, Kellengere, Kogali, Kollipake, Mulgunda, Soraṭūr, Śravanabelagola and Mandalināḍ, contemporary Jaina settlements which were prominent and thriving well.