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JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA
The document is dated the 45th regnal year and the cyclic year Sobhakṛit, Ashadha ba. 5, Wednesday. The regnal year cited seems to be too high for the king, as he was known to have ruled for 37 years only. So the numerical figure 45 may be a mistake for 35. In the cyclic year Sōbhakṛit the corresponding Śaka year was 1165 and the Christian equivalent of the date would be A. D. 1243, July 8, Wednesday."
The Devagiri Yadava monarch Singhana usually bears a string of high-sounding birudas. But he is introduced here, briefly, with only two of his outstanding titles, namely, Yadava-Narayana and Pratapa-chakravarti. We are already familiar with the Mummuridandas and the Ubhaya Nānā Desis who figure as donors in the foregoing inscription also. But it has to be remembered in this connection that though the names are the same, the individuals represented by them must have been different on account of the remoteness of time. For as shown previously, they comprised different sections of a huge commercial organisation directing and controlling the business transactions in particular localities. It is not known precisely who were the Desigas that are mentioned among the donors. Probably, they were the local representatives of Aḍakki like the Mahajanas.
It is interesting to recall here one or two points regarding the Jaina temple and the god figuring in this inscription. The temple which was named after its founder Kopparasa had come into being more than a century ago, as noticed in inscription No. 10. His name was still preserved in association with the temple and the deity Parsvanatha which had assumed the epithet 'Chenna' by the time of the subsequent record retained the popular name.
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Śrī svasti [*] Śrīmatu Yādava-Nārāya a Pratapa-chakravartti Simghaṇadēva-varushada 45 neya S(S)ōb(bh)akratu samvatsarada Ashadha bahula 5 Budhavāra Śrīmatu Āḍa
kkiya temkaṇa Koppa-jinālayada Chenna-Paršva-dēvara namdādīvigege Mummuridaṇḍm gal = U}bhaya-Nana-Desigaļu prabhu mukhyavāgi Dē
sigaru biṭṭa dharmma ga( a )nakke [sauțu ] Śrī [*]
1 Bomb. Gaz., Vol. I, pt. II, p. 522.
2 While editing the Methi inscription of the Yadava king Krishna, of Saka 1176, I had to restudy the chronological position of Singhana's reign; Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXVIII, part vii, No. 49. It is seen from a few authentic records that Singhana's reigu actually commenced in A. D. 1197-98. Thus viewed, there would be nothing unusual in this Aḍaki epigraph citing his 45th regnal year. On the contrary, it offers additional piece of evidence in favour of the earlier commencement of Singhapa's reign.
