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JAINISM IN INDIA
revered pontiff and preceptor Maghanandi Saiddhantika who was specially invited for the occasion. Maghanandi was the superintending priest of the illustrious Rupa narayana Basadi of Kollapura or Kollagira and head of the provincial pontifical seat (mandalācarya).
Kolhapur-The same high pontiff Maghanandi is mentioned in one of the two inscriptions from Kolhapur itself. The inscription on stone found near the Parsvanatha temple close to the Sukravara gate refers itself to the reign of the Silahara king Gandaraditya and introduces his reputed feudatory mahāsāmanta Nimbadeva. Nimbadeva was a devout follower of the Jaina law. He had perpetuated his religious fervour by erecting the temple of Rupa narayana at Kolhapur previously. He constructed one more temple dedicated to the god Parsvanatha in the market-site of Kavadegolla in A.D. 1135. Rupa narayana was an epithet of Gandaraditya and the Jaina shrine bearing the name was evidently designated by Nimbadeva, after the title of his master.
The second epigraph also was discovered in the same place near the Sukravara gate. This record is dated in A.D. 1143 and registers a gift of land and house-site for the benefit of the temple of Parsvanatha founded at Havira Herilage by Vasudeva, a disciple of Maghanandi. Vijayaditya, son of the king Gandaraditya, was the donor.
Vijayaditya figures seven years later (A.D. 1150) in a similar religious transaction recorded on a stone at Bamani in the Kagal area of the Kolhapur region. He donated land and a house-site for the worship of the image of Parsvanatha and for the execution of the repairs to the temple established by the local official Choudhore Kamagavunda at Madlur. The gift was handed over to the charge of Arhanandi Siddhantadeva, a disciple of Maghanandi.
Maghanandi of the Rupa narayana temple at Kolhapur was an eminent personality in the history of Jaina church of this area, and he contributed immensely to the prosperity of the faith by his erudition and efficient administration of the ecclesiastical organisations under him and through the able band of his scholarly disciples, during his long regime of nearly three generations.
Kolhapur was an eminent stronghold of Jainism from early times and it has maintained its reputation almost to the present day. It was reckoned among the four pontifical centres for spiritual thrones sacred to the Jaina community. This tradition is affirmed in a later inscription from the Jaina temple at Vadgaon in the Kolhapur area.
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