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the illustrious capital of the Rāshtrakūtas, is prevalent among the common folk of these parts. According to this tradition it is believed that this was a very big city extending as far as Sēdam, 10 miles to the east, and up to Dandoti, 4 miles to the west, and including among its suburbs the modern twin villages of Nilhalli and Konkanalli between Sēdam and Malkhöd. Malkhēd, as the report goes, was the seat of the royal palace; the imperial secretariate was housed at Sēdam; the army was stationed at Dandoti; and the treasury was deposited at Nilhalli-Konkanalli. In support of this contention the name Dandoti is said to have been derived from the word dandu' meaning 'an army', which has thus retained its old association to the present day."
Greater corroboration of this belief is vouched by the memories che. rished by the Jaina community of this region. These reminiscences, which may be characterised as peculiarly Jaina traditions, emphasise in their own way on two inter-linked aspects of the problem; to wit, one, Malkhôd was the headquarters of the Rāshțrakūtas of the Dekkan who were great patrons of Jainism; and two, it was an important ecclesiastical centre of the faith. We cannot, in this context, rule out the possibility that some of these traditions might have been influenced by the statements contained in the earlier works of the Jaina religious literature. Nevertheless we shall notice them here for what they are worth.
Chronologically reviewed, the importance of Maļkhēd as a seat of Jainism dates from the early period of the first century A. D. According to the later testimony of Haribhadrasūri, the author of Samyaktvasaptati, Malkhēd with its neighbourhood was inhabited by a fairly good number of followers of the Svētāmbara school of Jainism, when Pädaliptichārya who lived circa first century A, D., visited the place. It is revealing to note in this connection that this evidence of literature in regard to the existence of the followers of the Svētāmbara school in the south is substantiated by the testimony of the copper plate record of the Kadamba king Mrigēśavarmā, which speaks of the great congregation of monks of white robes, engaged in the works as enjoined by the excellent religion propounded by the Arhat', who lived in the 5th century A. D. in as southern a part of the country as the region of Banaväsi.
The belief is voiced in certain quarters associating Maļkhôd with the great teacher Kondakundāchārya. Another source of wider credence makes
1 The old name of the village is met with in the form Daņdabatti in an inscription from
Tengaļi of about the 12th century A. D. (Part II, No. 16). The latter part of the term which is hatti may be conneoted either with the Kannada expression hati denoting 'a settlement or with the Tamil word pati meaning 'an abode', as for instance in
the famous place-name Tirupati. 2 Mys. Arch. Report, 1923, pp. 10-11, 3 Ind. Ant., Vol. VII, p. 37.
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