________________
332
JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA
The record states that the image was caused to be made by Bammadēva, a lay disciple of the preceptor Nagavira Siddhantadeva who belonged to the Vandiyur gana of the illustrious Yapaniya Samgha. As it was a common practice in those days, the image might have been offered as a gift to a local temple and adorned it either as the central figure or an auxiliary piece.
In the course of my survey of the antiquities at Tengali, I could not discover many vestiges of the Jaina faith and had to satisfy myself with this single piece of Jaina sculpture. But after my perusal of the present inscription I gathered the impression that this village must have contained at least one Jaina temple in the period of the 12th-13th century A. D. This impression was justified not only by the evidence of the present sculpture, but also by a reference to a Jaina temple found in another inscription of the place (No. 16). It is clear therefore that the present image was associated with the Jaina temple mentioned in the following epigraph or a different shrine situated in the locality. It has to be observed that no trace of such a temple or temples is available at present and it must have been completely destroyed in the later age.
Nothing is known about Bammadēva, the donor of the image. But it may reasonably be inferred that he was a local chief of some status. Not many details are disclosed by the record regarding the preceptor Nagavira Siddhanta. dēva also. We do not know from which place he hailed. But his connection with the Vandiyur gana furnishes some clue regarding his identity. This gaņa is already known to us from an inscription at Aḍaki (No. 9). But the additional information which we get from the present inscription is that this gana was a constituent of the Yapaniya Samgha.
Yapaniya Samgha along with four other sects of the Jaina ascetic order was considered heterodox in the later days of the faith. But in the earlier days this sect functioned as an important institution and commanded much influence in Karnataka and other parts of South India. A large number of inscriptions on stone and copper containing references to the teachers who belonged to this sect have been discovered in many parts of Karnataka.' But the existence of this sect in this part of the country during the 12-13th century is revealed for the first time by two epigraphs in the present collection, viz., the present inscription and the Adaki record (No. 9). It is very likely that the teacher Nāgavīra Siddhāntadēva of the present record was connected with the spiritual line of the teacher Guņavīra Siddhantadēva figuring in the Adaki inscription. This is suggested by the identity of their epithets and common name-endings.
1 Journal of the University of Bombay-Arts and Law, Vol. I, 1932-33, p. 224.
