Book Title: Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs
Author(s): P B Desai
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
View full book text
________________
112
JADE IN SOUTH INDIA From the provenance of the record at Gokak and from the reference therein to Jambakhanda which may be identified with modern Jamkhandi, it may be surmised that the feudatory chief Indrapanda was governing the tract represented by these two places in the Belgaum region and that the community of Jaina monks also flourished in the same area. It may be seen from the above details that the inscription testifies to the strong position of influence enjoyed by the Jaina religion in these parts by the end of the 6th or the beginning of the 7th century A. D., to which period the epigraph may be ascribed approximately on palaeographic considerations.
. SAUNDATTI: This ancient town the earlier name of which was Sugandhavarti, developed as a powerful centre of Jaina religion from the period of the 9th century a. D. It was the capital of the feudatory governors of the Rāshtrakūta or Ratta family, who attained political prominence by the beginning of the 10th century A. D. An epigraph' found in the Ankalēśvara or Ankēsvara temple at Saundatti furnishes many details in regard to the religious leanings of the early rulers of the Raţța house and their activities that promoted the spread of Jaina doctrine in this region.
The Ratta chiefs appear to have been adherents of Jaina Law from the beginning. Mērada was the originator of the family. His son Mahāsāmanta Pțithvirāma was a feudatory of the Rāshtrakūța emperor Krishna III. He has been assigned to 940 A.D. Prithvirāma was a religious student and lay disciple of the preceptor Indrakirti. Indrakirti was the disciple of Gunakirti whose preceptor was Mulla Bhattāraka. Prithvirāma constructed a Jaina shrine at Sugandhavarti and endowed a piece of land for its upkeep. Counting three generations backward we may place Mulla Bhattāraka by the middle of the 9th century A. D. These preceptors belonged to the Kāroya gana of Mailapa Tirtha.
We may pause here for a moment to consider the monastic moorings of the preceptors enumerated above. The monastic section Kāreya gana occurs in the inscriptions of Kalbhāvi, Badli and Hannikēri, which we shall review presently. In the inscriptions of Kalbhāvi and Hannikēri Kāreya gana is Associated with Mailāpa anvaya. From this we can readily infer that.Mailāpa
old view it was somewhere between 220 and 211 B. 0. Dr. K. Gopalaohari, who has discussed the starting point of the Satavahana rale in his Early History of the Andhra Country (pp. 28 ff.), shifts its date to 234 B. o. This date would probably sait the caloulation of the years specified in the present record. If so we shall have to refer the name Gupta in the expression to Chadragapta Maurya and the expression Agaptayika kings to the Satavahanas who were the saccessors of the Masurys in the
politioal sense. 1. J. B. B. R. A. 8., Vol. X, pp. 194 ff. . : Bomb. Gus., Vol. I, pt. ü, p. 65%.
