________________
330
Jaina Rock-cut Caves in Western India became property-owning institutions, which started playing active role in the contemporary socio-political scene. Most of these changes started appearing in the beginning of the medieval period and continued to intensify over the following few centuries.
These changes are noticeable in Maharashtra also. As is apparent from the caves, which from the residential places change into only worship centres, the rules of wandering and staying in secluded areas were not followed very strictly by 8th_9th century CE. The tendency of the Jaina monks to prefer residence within cities and human settlement to secluded places becomes clear by this period. There are numerous references to large monasteries such as those at Vatagramapura, and Chandanapuri, which were granted large donations and were centres of learning with their own line of achāryas. Thus, by the gth century CE, the Jaina monks started settling down in monasteries situated in the midst of thriving towns, most probably for more than just the rainy season. This feature is noticed in Karnataka also, where this practice started from the end of the 4th century CE (Singh 1975: 100-101).
Another significant change was the rise in popularity of the yakşa-yaksis from around the 9th century CE as evident from the iconographic development, noticed in the caves under study. More than the yakşas, it was the worship of the yaksis that gained more popularity. There was an Uriamma basti at Vadner in Nasik district in the 10th century CE as known from the Vajirkheda inscription of 915 CE. Uriamma is the name of Yaksi Jvalamalini in Kannada and so possibly this temple belonged to this yaksi (Kolte 1987: 269-271). In Tamil Nadu and Karnataka too, the yakṣi worship gained popularity from the 8th to the 10th century CE respectively (Desai 1957: 72, 171). In Tamil Nadu, Ambikä and Jvalamalini became very popular, while in Karnataka the cult of Padmavati and Jvalamalini was popular (Desai 1957: 73-74, 171-173). However, in Maharashtra, the tantric and fierce aspects of these yaksis as known in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are not noticed in iconographic data, though in later period, Padmavati came to be associated with the destructive elements and was considered 'Adisakti' as evident from the Marathi Jaina literature of the 15th to the 18th century CE (Akkole 1968: 215-216). Sarasvati also emerged as an independent deity. Most of the Jaina texts invoke Sarasvati in the beginning (Akkole 1968: 216).
Image worship in Jainism is an ancient practice, but over a period of time the ritual became elaborate and complicated. Texts like the Vasudevahindi (4th-5th century CE) and Kuvalayamala (779 CE) give detailed account of worship with a number of articles like water, fragrant paste, incenses and flowers, accompanied by chants (Jamkhedkar 1965: 528-30, Jamkhedkar 1970-71: 94-95). The epigraphs from the study area furnish some information about the rituals of worship. Many of the inscriptions record the donations for the purpose of the worship of the main icon in the temple, but do not provide any details. A few of the records spell out the details of the type of worship, which give us some idea of the rituals involved in worship. The worship included a number of articles and is usually called 'eight-fold' or 'astanga' worship in some of the inscriptions. It is defined as worship with eight articles like water, scents, flowers, grain, incense, lamps, food and betel in the Kolhapur inscription of 1135 CE. The Bhalavani inscription of 1173 CE refers to worship with flowers, lamp, offerings, incense and scent, while according to the Kalvan inscription of 11th century, the worship included püjā,
