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Jaina Rock-cut Caves in Western India Orissa and within a few years of Mahavira's demise Jainism was introduced in Orissa (Chatterjee 1978: 78-79). Moreover, on the basis of the famous Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela, it can be assumed that Jainism was prevalent in Orissa during the time of the Nandas. The limit of the sect is very clear from the reference in Brhatkalpa, which mentions that the Jaina monks were allowed to wander only in Bihar, parts of Uttar Pradesh and the borders of Bengal and Orissa (Deo 1954-55: 242). Thus, till about the 4th century BCE, the approximate date of Brhatkalpa (Deo 1954-55: 26-27), the religion was confined to mainly eastern India.
South India:
After this period, there are evidences indicating the spread of the sect in different parts of the country. The Mauryan ruler Samprati, grandson of Asoka is said to be a devout Jaina. He is said to have made twenty-five and half countries suitable for vihara of Jaina monks (Jain, J. 1965: 22-23). However, there are some literary references and traditions, which suggest that the sect was prevalent in south India before this date. Among these, the most famous is the tradition of Bhadrabahu migrating to south India along with a large number of monks and the Mauryan ruler Chandragupta due to the twelve year long famine in Magadha at the close of the 4th century BCE and coming to Shravana Belgola, in Karnataka. This tradition appears first in the 6th-7th century CE record at Shravanabelgola (Sharma 1940: 4-5, Singh, 1975: 5). It has been argued that since Bhadrabahu thought of migrating to south India with such a large group of monks he must have been sure of getting favourable reception in this region and so Jainas must have existed in the region from earlier times (Desai 1957: 2). Other tradition concerns the advent of Jainism in Tamil Nadu. On the basis of a reference to 'Niganthas' in the Buddhist texts Dipavamsa, dated to the 4th century CE and Mahāvamsa, dated to the 5th century CE, it is believed that Jainism was prevalent in Ceylon as early as the 4th century BCE and therefore probably also existed in Tamil Nadu (Chatterjee, 1978: 118). Moreover, the early Tamil works like Kural, Tolkappiyam, Silappadikaram and Manimekalai carry imprints of Jaina concepts and ideas and also direct mention of Jaina monks as well as shrines. Though the dates of these works are controversial, they are generally believed to have been composed between the 1st century BCE and the 2nd century CE (Chatterjee 1978: 120-127). Another literary tradition suggests that Jainism existed in Andhra Pradesh in the 4th-3rd century BCE. This tradition is narrated in the Kannada work 'Dharmamrita' of 1112 CE. It deals with Dhanada, a Jaina king of the Ikshvaku family ruling in Vengi Mandala from his capital Pratipalapura or modern Bhattiprolu and the conflict between Buddhism and Jainism (Desai 1957: 3-4). This Dhanada is considered to be a historical figure on the basis of a 3rd century BCE inscriptional evidence and a few other traditions (Desai 1957: 6). On the assumption that if Jainism ever thrived in this region, it must have been prior to the pre-dominance of Buddhism, which flourished in the region from the 3rd century BCE to the 6th century CE as definite archaeological evidences suggest, the antiquity of the sect is traced back to the 4th century BCE in Andhra Pradesh (Desai 1957: 7).
Now if we look at the more definite and reliable archaeological record, the earliest evidence of the existence of Jainism in Karnataka is an inscription of 370 CE recording the donations made by the Ganga king Madhava II to a Jaina monastery (Singh 1975: 6).
