Jaina Corpus of Koppala Inscriptions X rayed

Author(s): Nagarajaiah Hampa
Publisher: Ankita Pustak

Page 62

Corpus of Koppaļa Inscriptions / 43
Vişnuvardhana Mahārāja, rājamārtanda Bhima III [SII. IXi. No. 403. 10th cent. Rāmatirtham cave inscription (AP)], Vizagapatam dt, Vizianagarm zamindari, p. 409).
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Rāmatirtham olim Rāmagiri or Rāmakonda or Ratnagiri in Trikalinga country, was a reputed Jaina settlement. It is here in a Jinālaya that Ugrāditya composed his kalyānakäraka, a SK. work, for the good of mankind. Śrinandin, who was the preceptor of Ugrāditya and Vişnuvardhana IV (C.E. 762-99), king of the Eastern (Vengi) Cālukyas. The Rāştrakūta king Govinda Ill (793-814) had also once retired to the banks of Tungabhadrā and fixed his camp at Rameśvara-tirtha, when Vişnuvardhana IV and his sucessor Vijayāditya-11 (C.E. 808) of Vengi were ruling; the prince Amoghavarşa-I was then about six years old! Ramatirtham flowered into an influential seat of Nirgrantha faith and learning, under the patronage of the Vişnuvardhana-IV (771-806), when Śrinandi ācārya was the abbot of the diocese.
Later, during the reign of Amma-I, Bhima-II, Ammarāja-11 (945-75) and Bhima-III, who had the cognomen of Sarvalokāśraya, encouraged Jainism to flourish along with Rāmatirtham [El. VII. p. 177]; “An inscription at Rāmatirtham near Vijayanagaram indicates that Jainism continued to flourish till the beginning of eleventh century and that the Rāmatirtham hill was regarded as a place of piligrim by the Jains since early days. A Kannada inscription of the reign of king Vimalāditya states that Trikāla yogi siddhāntadeva muni, Ācārya of Desigana who was a guru of the king, paid respects to the Rāmatirtham hill. With the reign of Rājarājanarendra, son and successor of Vimalāditya, Jainism lost royal patronage and sympathy" (Pusalkar, A.D: The age of Imperial Kanauj, ed. R.C. Majumdar, Vol. IV. Bombay: 1955:290).
Rāmakonda (Sk. Rāmatirtham) was a Jaina centre from seventh to eleventh cent. Srinandin and Trikālayogin were responsible for its fame who commanded royal patronage. Gurubhaktakonda at Rāmatirtham has the vestiges of Suvidhinātha (Pușpadanta), Pārsvanātha, Rşabhanātha