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
though more intimately related with Karnāțaka, deserves to be carefully examined in our study of Jainism in Andhra Dēśa. This is the well-known story of the origin of Western Gangas of Mysore. It may briefly be stated thus. Two princes of the Ikshvāku family, Dadiga and Madhava, migrated from the north to South India. They came to the town of Pörür in the modern Cuddapah District. There they met & Jaina teacher of considerable reputation named Simhanandi. Simbanandi trained the princes in the science of ruling. At the behest of the teacher, Mādbava cut asunder a stone pillar which 'barred the road to the entry of the goddess of sovereignty'. Thereupon Simhanandi invested the princes with royal authority and made them rulers of a kingdom. ...: The fullest version of the story is met with in a stone inscription from the Mysore State, dated in the first quarter of the twelfth century A. D.' The nucleus of the story or a few bare allusions to its main incidents occur in the epigraphical records ranging from the fifth century onwards.' But the historicity of the tradition has not been questioned, and it is generally assumed that the events refer to a period of the second century A. D.®
Pērür which acquired the name Ganga Pērür on account of its connection with the founders of the Ganga Dynasty, appears to have been a fairly important centre of Jainism, according to the description contained in the epigraph. It possessed a Chaitgālaya or Jaina temple wherein gathered the congregation of Jaina followers under the leadership of Simhanandi. The stone pillar which is said to have been demolished by the Ganga prince need not be taken literally.* Figuratively interpreted, it might represent the obstacles standing in the way of founding a new kingdom. The epigraph further tells that the teacher was an inhabitant of the southern region. This legend of Simhanandi furnighes another landmark in the history of the Jaina faith in Andhra Dēša. It implies that Jainism was fairly established in the southern part of the country by the second century A. D. According to the tradition of Bhadrabāhu and Chandragupta, Jainism had been introduced into the Mysore region earlier in the third century B. o. If the faith had continued to hold on in the Mysore area, it should have facilitated the efforts of Simbapandi in
1 Ep. Carn., Vol. VII, Sh. 4. ... 2 B. A. Salotore: Mediaeval Jainism, pp. 10-11.
3 Ibid., p. 7. 4 The very fact that the stone pillar is described as capable of being split asunder with
A sword makes it improbable that it could have been actually a pillar of stone. Even granting that it indicated an objeot like Asoka's ediot announcing the doctrine of Buddhism as the late Mr. Rice has spegulated, its mere destruotion could not expel the Buddhist faith from the land.