Jaina Monuments of Andhra

Author(s): G Jawaharlal
Publisher: Sharada Publishing House Delhi

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Conversions of Jaina Monuments
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dismantled a Jaina - basadi at Tenali in Guntur district and constructed the temple of Ramalingeswara on the foundations of a Jaina temple. This is confirmed by the discovery of an image of Mahavira in the premises of the present Ramalingeswara temple at Tenali.
Saivite works like Panditaradhya-chairta contain references to the innumerable debates between the Saivites and the Jains. The earliest of them was the miracle wrought by Sri-pati-pandita in the court of Anantapala at Bezwada during the year A.D. 1116-1117. This Anantapala is known to have ruled the Coastal districts between A.D. 1116-1127 as a general of the Western Chalukyas.' His inscriptions are also found at places like Chebrolu in Guntur district and Kolluru and Tripurantakam in Prakasam district. Originally he was a Jaina by persuation and he is known to have built the Ananta-Jinalaya at Chebrolu in Guntur district. Later on, he shifted allegiance from Jainism to Hinduism and endowed several gifts to the temples of Siva and Vishnu. Possibly, Anantapala changed his faith from Jainism to Hinduism under the influence of Sripatipandita, who proved the superiority of Saivism over Jainism, by performing a miracle in the royal court. This fact is confirmed by a later record found at Bezwada in Krishna district. Further a certain Devaradasayya, a Saivite leader is said to have performed a miracle and extirpated all the 500 Jainbasadis at Potlacheru (modern Patancheru in Ranga Reddy district) and installed there Siva called as Uttareswara.
Pudur in Mahaboobnagar district was a flourishing Jaina centre. The temple at Pudur was known as Pallava-Jinalaya established by the Jain-pontiff, Kanakasena-Bhattaraka of Dravida-Sangha under patronage of Hallavarasha, a feudatory of Vikramaditya VI (A.D. 10761126). The Pallava-Jinalaya consists of garbhagriha, antarala and vestibule and a stepped-pyramidal tower over the garbhagriha. From epigraphical evidence, it is surmised that during the reign of Ganapatideva, his general Jagadala occupied Pudur and converted the Pallava-Jinalaya into a Saiva temple after dismantling the Jaina temple and kept the Nandi image infront of the Pallava-Jinalaya and a Sivalinga in the sanctum of the temple (fig-5). Vemulavada in Karimnagar