Jaina Monuments and Places First Class Importance

Author(s): T N Ramchandran
Publisher: Veer Shasan Sangh Calcutta

Page 37

TIRUPARUTTIKUNRAM OR JINA-KANCHI
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Icarning and work. In inscription No. 22 which is found at Arunagiri-medu, the same Chandrakirli is referred to as the spiriiual gurn of another sage who llourished at Tiruparuttikunram, the latter being known as Anantavīrya Vämana.* In the present state of our kncwiedge of the Jaina heirarchy we are not able to identify the Chandrakīrti referred to, and the local Jainas are unable to help on this point ; other lists found at śravana Belgola are not helpful. There is, of course, a Chandrakīrti in the list of Jaina acharyas available from the Āndhra-Karnāța-cesu, and he is placed there between two other acharyas, Kanakakīrti Deva, who figures in one of the misidhı inscriptions from Dänavıılapādu now exhibited in the Mådras Museum, and Bhattāraka Jinachandra. It will be too much to see any connection between our Chandrakirti (1199A.D.) and the one mentioned above, as the latter should be placed in the tenth century, the date of the nisidhi spcaking of Chandrakirti's predecessor Kanakakirti Deva being assigned on sure grounds to 910-917 A.D. Thus our Chandrakīrti is a different person who lived and died at Tiruparuttikunram itself.
Inscriptions No. 18 and No.22* relate to Anantavirya Vāmana, another sage who was a disciple of Chandrakīrti. The former is found on a balipitha to the north-east of the kora tree inside the temple, and the latter on a samādhi slab at Arunagirimedu. While the former merely says that the balipitha belongs to Anantavīrya thereby meaning that worship was intended for him in the manner known to the temple archakas, viz, placing ablutions (bali) on the pedestal (the belief being that the spirit of the sage will feed on it), the latter dearly records that the slab was erected in memory of the said sage who had the unique honour of counting Chadrakīrti as his spiritual guru, Nothing more is known about this sage from the temple records or from
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*
T. N. Ramachandran, Ibid, p. 60-61.