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JAINA EPIGRAPHS: PART 1
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as the Dolmens and the Stone Circles. It is interesting to note how the recollection of these ancient times has been preserved in a peculiar manner by the local tradition which recognises these structures under such names as the Mõrõra Agasi (i. e., the gate of the Mõrēs), Mārēra Angadi (i. e., the shop of the Mõrēs ), etc. The expression More' is to be derived from the term Maurya; and these labels are apparently reminiscent of the historio times when this region was probably under the influence of the Mauryan Empire. But a critical examination will lead to the conclusion that such traditions need not be interpreted literally as they only indicate half-way attempts of a confused and unhistoric inind to describe in a vague manner unfamiliar objects of the bygone age.
Another set of traditions takes us into the realm of the Mahābhārata and the Purāņas. These legends seem to assume that this place was asso ciated with certain incidents in the life of the Pandavas, particularly during the period of their exile. Hence it is that certain spots in the Kopbal hills are styled Pāņdavara Vathāra or Pāņdavara Vathala (i, e., the shed of the Pāņdavas). Further amplification of this belief may be traced in the names like Indrakila Parvata, Arjunana Gundu (i. e., Arjuna's boulder) and Handiya Gundu (i. e., Boar's boulder), etc., given to specific hills and hill-tops in the region. These appellations are apparently calculated to justify the claim that Arjuna performed his penance in the hills of Kopbal for the acquisition of the miraculous weapon Pāśupata.
Coming to the Buddhist times this place appears to bave been considered a convenient centre for the propagation of that faith in South India from the times of Asoka. The two ininor edicts of the emperor engraved on the rocks of the Gavimatha and Pallakki Gundu, discovered recently, confirm this surmise. Konkinapulo which was a great seat of Buddhism according to the narrative of Yuan Chwang who visited it during the 7 th century A. D., has been identified with Kopbal. From this we are lead to the plausible inference that Kopbal had by this time proved to be a fertile field for the growth of the Buddhist faith which seems to have flourished here approximately from the 3rd century B. c. to the 7th century A. D.
Jainism too, along with Buddhism, must have wended its way to this attractive place from the early centuries before the Christian era, though no direct evidence is available on the point. Still, the early penetration of the Jaina creed in the 3rd century B. c. further south as far as Sravana Belgola in the Kannada country as attested by the Bhadrabāhu-Chandragupta tradition,
Mediaeval Jainism p. 188-89. Contra Konkinapulo identified with Banavāsi; Kadamba Kula, p. 62, No. 3.
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