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JAINISH IN SOUTH INDIA
rooonstruoting the history of the eminent Jaina stronghold. The results of the systematic epigraphical survey carried on some years ago on a modest scale for the first time by the present writer have been incorporated in the sabsequent pages of this volume. This would give us an idea in regard to the wealth of the material lying here.
3. Bombay Karnataka Since the year 1925 the Karnāțaka area included in the Bombay State, comprising the four districts specified above, is being surveyed systematically by the Epigraphical Branch of the Archaeological Departınent. In consequence of this epigraphical survey a large number of inscriptions has been discovered so far. Many of these inscriptions refer to the activities of the followers of the Jaina religion and offer much valuable material for reconstructing the history of the faith in the Karnāțaka region. The main contents of a majority of these inscriptions have been published in the Annual Reports on South Indian Epigraphy. As the Reports subsequent to the year 1938 are under publication, the summaries of inscriptions collected during the past decade are not yet available for study to the scholarly public. Some of the inscriptions in the Bombay Karnāțaka area have been published in full in the Epigraphia Indica, Indian Antiquary and other journals. After this brief statement of the present position of epigraphical research in this area, I shall proceed to review the important facts of Jaina religion and culture as reflected in these inscriptions, in their chronological setting, according to the geographical units.
BIJAPUR DISTRICT Alhoçe: An early survival of the Jaina faith in this tract is the famous inscription engraved on stone in the Mēguţi temple at Aihole. Composed in highly classical style in Sanskrit, it eulogises the military exploits of the renowned Western Chālukya monarch Pulakési II. Its author Ravikirti who claims himself to be placed along with Kālidāsa and Bhāravi for his poetic excellence, was an adherent of the Jaina doctrine, and probably ascetic of the monastic order of the Yāpanīyas as suggested by Dr. Upadhye.'
With the generous support of the king, he founded a Jaina shrine and wrote . the praśasti, a standing monument to the catholic outlook of the rulers and
the l'espectable position enjoyed by the followers of the Jaina Law in the kingdom. Ravikirti's claims to the literary art could not have rested on this single piece alone and he must have tried his hand also on other works, which unfortunately remain unknown. The epigraph is dated A. D. 634. This date, on account of synchronisin furnished by the enumeration of
1 Ep. Ind., Vol. VI, pp. 1 ff. % Journ. of Bomb. Uni; Arts and Law, 1933 Muy, p. 230.
