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JAINISN IN SOUTH INDIA
KAĻAGI This village is about 14 miles to the west of the Chitāpur Station on the Nizam's State Railway. It is regarded as a holy place and its sanctity is compared with that of the Kāšī Kshētra. This claim is justified by the presence, in this place, of a large number of temples dedicated to Siva. In the midst of these monuments of the Brahmanical faith it is interesting to observe the remains of a huge Jaina temple which was found lying in a deplorably desolate condition. The stately image of Pārsvanātha with his serpent hood and other paraphernalia, which must have once consecrated and adorned the temple, was still lying in the debris of ruins. No inscription pertaining to this temple could be traced. All the monuments referred to above may be roughly ascribed to the 12th century A. D. The old name of this place as gathered from inscriptions in other temples was Kāļuge. It was the headquarters of the district styled Mannedaời Thousand. The town was the headquarters of the chiefs of the Bāņa family, who were ruling in these parts.
MAĻKHĒD This village situated in the Södam taluk has been identified with Mânyakhota, the eminent capital of the Rāshțrakūtas of the Dekkan. I have explored this place carefully during my visits to it more than once, with a view to secure confirmatory evidence in support of this identification. But I was rather disappointed with my findings which are as follows. Firstly, this place is poor in antiquities most of which are of a late period. Secondly, there is no trace whatsoever of cither the monuments or inscriptions of the Rāshịrakūta times. In the neighbouring villages which, as we shall see presently, are said to have constituted the suburbs of the great metropolis, I discovered some inscriptions of the later Chālukyas; but no single inscription of the Rāshtrakūțas was found anywhere. This glaring dearth of early relics may probably be ascribed to the close proximity of the river Kāgiņā which might have swept them away or submerged them by its overflowing operations. Excavations may yet reveal some of them. This suggestion is justified by the reported vestiges of old temples and other structures noticed by the residents of this place in the course of diggings for the foundations of new houses.
Now we shall focus our attention for a while on the local traditions which are the next important, though secondary, sources of our information in the present enquiry. A tradition which uninistakably identifies this place with
1 It is probable that the place name, Malakotaka mentioned in the Mudbo! plates
of Pūgavarman, of about the 6th century A. D., is indenital with Malkhēd. If this identification be correct, it would be the earliest epigraphical evidence regarding
the existence of the place prior to the times of the Rashtrakūtas. Vide Progress • of Kannada Research in Bombay Province, from 1941 to 1946, p. 71.
