Book Title: 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
Pustaka gachchha and Ingalēśvara Bali which were important sections of this Samgha have further found a place in our records.
ii) Balātkāru gaṇa was an eminent branch of the Múla Saṁgha and it is represented substantially in our epigraphs, particularly of the Kopbāl District. As the expressions gaña and gachchha are sometimes treated as synonymous we are justified in equating the rather unfamiliar term Sārasvata gana of No, 2 of the above list with Balātkāra gana, taking into consideration the significent fact that Balātkūra gana and Sarasvati gachcnha go together invariably.
iv) Krāṇür gana with Tintriņi gachchha was another branch of the Müla Samgha. It is one of the less known sections of the Jaina monastic orders of South India. Only one inscription in our collection furnishes valuable details regarding 4 new line of teachers who belonged to this order. It has been pointed out elsewhere that this was the earliest line of monks of this gaña known so far.
v) Another well-known branch of the Mūla Samgha was Sõna gana which has been represented in one record.
vi) Besides the Mūla Samgha two more principal ascetic orders that played a prominent role in the religious histry of South Indian Jainism are represented in our collection. They are the Dravida Samgha and thə Yāpaniya Samgha. Dravida Samgha, as indicated by the name, was primarily conected with the Tamil country. The existence of the particular line of teachers in the northerninost parts of Karnataka, who belonged to this Samgha is disclosed for the first time by the Ingalgi record. An early instance of a monk who, probably belonged to the same Sēna gana and Mälanūra anvaya, possibly of the Dravida Sargha, is available in an inscription from Sravana Belgola ( No. 25), to be roughly ascribed to the of the monk's guru, which is stated to be Pattini Guravadigal in this record is a Tamil expression (pattini meaning "fasting'); and this lends support to the surmise that these teachers hailed from the Tamil region. Monks bearing the epithet Pattini' are commonly met with in the inscriptions of the Tamil country, as seen before.
vii) Yapaniya Samgha figures in three inscriptions, explicitly in one and implicitly in two. As it has been shuwn elsewhere, Maduva guņa of Inscription No. 3 and Vaidiyūr gaạit of Inscriptions Nos. 9 and 15 were associated with it. The existence of this Samgha and its two little known gaņas or branches in this part of the country is l'evealed for the first time by our epigraphs.
viii) The convention of elaborately furnishing the details of the monastic order to which a teacher belonged was not strictly adhered to in the
