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JAINTEX EN HOUTH INDIA
Kuhundi Mandala. This region was under the rule of the princes of the Silahara and Ratta families who were Jaina by persuasion and who contributed substantially to the prosperity of the Jaina faith. Since most of the facts concerning these rulers have been brought to light by earlier writers, I shall avoid their repetition.
. Halsi: Halsi in the Khānāpur taluk distinguished itself as an early and thriving centre of Jainism, where several learned preceptors and religious institutions owned by different schools of the faith flourished under the stimulating aegis of Kākusthavarmā and other princes of the early Kadamba house. It was the second capital city of great importance and is referred to as Vijaya Palāsikā in the records of the Kadamba rulers. Divested of its epithet, Palášikā or its Kannada derivative Palasige, was the ancient name of the place. A large number of copper-plate documents issued by the Kadamba kings oommences with an invocation to Jinēndra and registers various grants to the Jaina institutions and personalities. Some of them having a direct bearing on the history of Jainism in this particular tract may be noticed here.
A copper-plate charter dated in the eighth regnal year of ihe Kadamba king Mpigēśavarmā informs that he caused to be constructed, in memory of his revered father, a Juina temple in the city of Palāśikā and made a gift of land to the god Arhat and to the monks of the Yāpanīya, Nirgrantha and Kūrchaka sects.' Ravivarmā, the next ruler, was a more zealous supporter of the faith than his predecessors. He issued an ordinance at the mighty city of Palasikā exhorting that the festival for the glorification of Jinêndra should be celebrated on specified days regularly every year, that the ascetics of the Yāpaniya sect should be fed during the four months of the rainy season and that the worship of Jinēndra should be performed perpetually by the pious countrymen and citizens.' In the eleventh regnal year of the same king his brother Bhānuvarmā made a gift of land at Palāśikā for performing the ablution ceremony to the Jaina gods regularly on the days of full moon. Imbibed with the sense of devotion to the Law of the Lord Jina. nurtured by his anoestors, Harivarmā, the son of Ravivarmā, made provision, in his fourth regnal year, for the perpetual anointing with clarified butter during the eight days' festival every year, in the temple of Arhat constructed at Palásikā by Mțigāša, son of the general Simha, and for feeding the Jaina monks."
These events might be placed in the period of the 5-6th century A. D. Jainism continued to prosper in this area for a few centuries more. But it is
1 Ind., Ant. Vol. VI, p. 24, 1 Ibid., p. 26. 3 Ibid., p. 28. 4 Ibid., p. 30.
