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JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA
From incidental allusions in inscriptions as also from the surviving relics explored in the locality we are in a position to glean a few names of the temples that adorned this town at one time. Here is a list of such temples: 1) Arasiya Basadi (Ins. No, 29); 2) Chandranātha Basadi (Ep. Ind., Vol. XX, p. 94); 3) Jayadhira Jinālaya (Ins. No. 46); 4) Kuća Jinālaya (Ins. Nos. 23-24); 5) Nõminātha Basadi (still surviving and under worship); 6) Pushpadanta Jinālaya (Ins. No. 25); 7) Sāntaladõviyara Basadi (Ins. No. 29); 8) Sāntinātha Basadi. A detached image of Sāntinātha Tirthakara was found preserved in the Nēminātha Basadi. This must have been brought here from the temple originally dedica. ted to the god, which, later on, must have gone to ruin. 9) Timambarasiya Basadi (Ins. No. 29); 10) Tirthada Basadi (Ins. No. 29); 11) According to Ins. No. 22 a temple was erected by Kalyāṇakirti on the spot where Simhanandi expired. Traces of this temple can be detected even to the present day near the cave. 12) Images of Padmavati and other deities are found deposited in the Nēminātha Basadi. These might have originally belonged to the temples dedicated to Pārsvanātha Tirthakara and other divinities.' 13) The present day Venkatësa temple in the fort area must have been a Jaina temple formerly. This is revealed by the pillars bearing the figures of Jinas and other vestiges discovered here.
I may incidentally notice a few interesting facts regarding the political history of the place as revealed by recent epigraphical discoveries. The hilly region and the hill fort of Kopbal appears to have been considered one of the mightiest natural strongholds of strategic importance from the early times. Inscriptions explored in the area of the Gulbarga and Bijapur districts contain allusions to a family of Šilāhāra chiefs who had settled in that region, but originally hailed from Kopaņapura or Kopbal.* This fact is proved
1 The late Mr. Shastri in his article on Kopa'a-Koppala refers to a temple named
Kopanatirthads Dannāyaka Basadi at kopbal (Kan. Sahitya Pari. Patrike, Vol. XXII, No. 3). This is obviously due to wrong understanding of the real position.
See the introduction of Ins. No. 49. 3 I have noticed a few more cases like the above and may mention one conspicuous
instance here. In the modern Virabhadra temple at Nēsargi, Sainpgaon taluk, Belgaum Dt., figures of the Jinas are carved on the doors and images of twenty-four Tirthakaras are found inside the shrine. From this it becomes evident that it was ortginally & Jaina temple. An image of a Jaina deity with an inscription on the pedestal was seen in this temple till recently. But it is reported to have been
destroyed a few years back! 3 The latest testimony to the effect is from Sir John Maloom; Journal of the Hyderabad
Arob. Society, 1916, p. 93. 4 Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVII, pp. 68-9.
