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Site: Location and Importance
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while there are a few inscriptions in the caves on the Mangi peak. A number of icons, mainly of the monks, in G and I, carry individual names of the monks, written below, in almost modern Devanagari. These appear to have been written much later than the icons, but probably recording memory of older tradition. There are two, long inscriptions, which are historically important. The Sanskrit inscription in G refers to some acharyas and also some other well-known people, which are not very clear. The inscription in I is very important. It refers to the monks of sarasvati gachha, balatkara gana and śri kunkundacharaya anvaya, possit.y represented in the panel above. There is reference to Chiniyaraja Viramsena, Pradhanasena, Kanaksena and their wives. Viramsena was the Rathod king of Mulher, a fort nearby. The region around Baglan was ruled by Rashtrodh or Rathod dynasty from Rajputana from 1297 CE. As per their historical account written by the poet Rudra in 1596, total 54 rulers of the family ruled the area. The area was annexed by Aurangzeb in 1637 CE. There are as many as three kings called Virasena, the third, thirty-sixth and forty-fourth, of this dynasty (Balsekar and Bhamre 2006: 88-90). As the date in the inscription is not legible, it is not clear which Viramsena is referred to in this inscription.
There are no direct references to the caves in the inscriptions of any dynasties. However, a Rashtrakuta inscription refers to the territories around the site. Interestingly, it records the grant of some villages to two Jaina temples. The inscription in question is the Vajirkheda copper plates of Indra III, dated to 915 CE. It records the grant of a few villages to a Jaina basti, called Amogha at Chandanapuripattana and Uriamma basti at Vadnerapattan by the king. Chandanapuri has been identified with Chandanapuri, 3.2 km south of Malegaon, while Vadner has been identified with Vadner, about 24 km from Malegaon. All the donated villages have been identified in nearby areas of Baglan and Malegaon talukas. One of the villages, donated to Uriamma basti is Tungoni, identified with Tungana, about 2.5 km east of Bhilwad, the village at the foot of Mangi-Tungi hills (Kolte 1987: 256-287). Possibly, the village derived its name from the Tungi hill or vice versa. The fact that Chandanapuri and Vadner are mentioned as 'paṭṭana' make it clear that these were large cities, connected with trade, as the term 'pattana' usually implies trade activities (Mahajan 1989: 282, 241). Chandanapuri has been mentioned as Chandanapuri 84 in Ellora plates of Dantidurga (Mahajan 1989: 128). Vatanagara visaya, mentioned in a number of Rashtrakuta epigraphs, included parts of Malegaon taluka (Mahajan 1989: 122). The site then fell under the administrative divisions, which were important areas and strongholds of Jaina sects with two temples receiving royal patronage. As pointed out by Kolte, Amogha basti was perhaps named after the Rashtrakuta king, Amoghavarsa, who must have made grants to this temple formerly (Kolte 1969: 11). It is quite possible that this temple was built by the king himself as it was a popular practice during medieval period to name the temple/presiding deity after the name of the donor. There was a very famous Jaina monastery at Vatagramapura, which was a great centre of learning as known by a long line of acharyas (Jain, J. P. 1979). It seems that Jinasena, the disciple of Virasena, completed Jayadhavala', which was left unfinished by Virasena, at Vatagrampura, in the first half of the 9th century CE. Indranandi (ca. 10th century) says that Jinasena came to Vatagrampura from Chitrakutapura and settled down in the "ancient Jaina temple". An old manuscript of 'Pratikramana', dated in 1560 CE and preserved at Karanja, mentions that Virasena wrote his work in Vata-Vata-Chaityavare (Jain, J. P. 1979: 4-5). This Vatanagara
