Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs

Author(s): P B Desai
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

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JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA
namesake who wrote an excellent grammar of Kannada on Sanskrit model is established by a searching investigation into the political and religious history of the area.
During the later phase of its history Jainism passed more and more under the influence of Tantricism. A beginning in this direction was made in the form of the Yakshi cult which developed into ceremonial worship of the deities like Jvālāmalini and Padmavati beyond their natural set up and culminated in their ritualistic invocation under mystical formularies. Several Jaina teachers claimed mastery over the occult lores of Mantra Vidyā and Tantra Vidyā and took pride in styling themselves Mantravādins. The depth to which this belief had penetrated into the religious life even of the enlightened leaders of Jainism is instanced by Mallishēņa Sūri, a distinguished scholar and the head of a monastery at Mulgund, who wrote Tantric treatises like the BhairavaPadmavati-kalpa and Jvälini-kalpa.
The above study is again supplemented by the fruits of researches in epigraphy and archaeology carried on by the author on his own initiative in the unexplored Kannada areas of the former Hyderbad State. These researches are set forth in detail in the subsequent chapter of the book entitled Jaina Epigraphs (pp. 175 ff). This is further divided for the convenience of treatment into three sections or parts. The First Part contains a critical examination of the Jaina antiquities, such as architectural remains, sculptures and epigraphs, noted by the author in the course of his village-to-village survey.
It is revealed here for the first time that Ādaki, Bankūr, Harasur, Hupasi-Hadagali, Ingalgi, Malkhôd and Sēdam in the Gulbarga District and Kopbal and Yalbargi in the present Raichur District, were strongholds of Jainism during the Mediaeval Period and have treasured remnants of the Jaina faith on a large scale. Foremost among these centres were Maļkhēų which was the capital of the Rāshtrakūțas and Kopbal which was eminently holy, mentioned as Kopaņa-kshētra in inscriptions and literature. This Part also deals with the sidelight received from the epigraphs edited in the following sections on the political history of the area and the social and religious conditions prevailing during the times, along with a few observations on the geography, language and literature.
A part of the discussion in this section centres round the new facts about Jainism discovered by the author in the course of the study of the Epigraphs. It is shown that there existed in this area several monastic orders and families of preceptors not known before; as for instance, teachers of the Dravida Sangha, Sēna gaña and Mälanūra anvaya, figuring in an epigraph from Ingalgi and monks of the Maduva and Vandiyűr gaņas of the Yāpaniya Samgha, mentioned in the inscriptions at Ādaki, Sēdam and Tengali.