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JAINISM IN INDIA
length and breadth of south India. We find in the Jaina inscriptions many such lines (ganas) and their preceptors. The name of such a subsidiary gana or group can be Nandi, Sena, Deva or Simha indicating the particular surname the ganadharas assumed ; or Desi, Dravila, Gaula, Saurastra, from the place the line first sprung up (Desi is indigenous and not a north Indian samgha, its monks having been south Indian converts to Jainism); Kanur, Kavurur, Vegavatika according to their headquarters ; Valahari, Vrasabha, Kalogra, indicating some kind of excellence attained by the head of the line. But one point about these several gaņas is of particular interest. It appears that, beyond their self-inflicted or accepted discipline, there was no commonly agreed code of discipline to which all the Jainas of south India conformed, looked up to for correction or guidance. This led to the intense localisation of Jainism in Andhra, its consequent weakness and gradual fall.
After Samantabhadra, the name of Simhanandi of Perur in Cuddapah district is famous in tradition. He appears to have been the first in these parts to have specialised in the arts too and made his place a regular pilgrim centre even for kings and their feudal lords. For the first time in the history of Andhra country we hear of a caityālaya having been constructed at Perur. Simhanandi trained the two Iksvaku princes in the arts and guided them in the carving of a kingdom round Kolar. This was the nucleus for the western Ganga kingdom, which lasted even upto the times of Krsnadevaraya. The names of Pujyapada, composer of Jinendra Vyākarana and Akalamka, the great disputant, close the list of traditionally famous preceptors of the Vakragaccha. Their disciples were famous in the succeeding centuries in several fields and several capitals. Vasavacandra of the western Calukyan capital was famous as Balasarasvati. Gopanandi was said to have vanquished the Samkhya, Bhautika, Bauddha, Carvaka and Vaisnava disputants in religious argument.
Caluk yan period—In A.D. 609, Pulakesi II came to the western Calukvan throne and conquered many territories around. He overran Kalinga, travelled down the coast, conquered Pistapura, Vengi, regions south of the river Krsna and proceeded further south. He installed his younger brother Kubjavisnuvardhana as the ruler of Vengi. The queen Ayanamahadevi of this first eastern Calukyan monarch donated a village Musinikonda to a Jaina temple Nadumbi vasadi of Vijayawada in 627 A.D. This vasadi, the first dated Jaina establishment in Andhra was most probably situated on the Mallikarjuna hill. This would have been a Svetāmbara establishment as only Svetambaras favoured ladies too with religious instruction and dikşā to help them to work up for Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only
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