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884
year of the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI. We may further recognize this Vira Bibbarasa as a scion of the Bāņa family, the members of which were ruling in these parts, first as the feundatories of the Chalukyas of Kalyana, and subsequently under their successors, the Kalachuris. A good number of epigraphs collected by this author at Tengali and Kalagi, furnishes interesting details concerning these Bāņa rulers. It seems two brothers named Chandarasa and Bandarasa, claiming their descent in the lineage of the mythical hero Bāņa, son of Bali, carved out for themselves a small principality consisting of one hundred villages in the region of Mannedaḍi Thousand sometime in the 10th-11th century. The area of Temguli Seventy, apparently made up of seventy villages, was included in this principality which was termed Khaṇḍava-maṇḍala. These chiefs distinguished themselves by the epithets, Baṇavamśōdbhava (born in the lineage of Bana) and Khandava-manḍaladhiśvara (overlords of the region of Khāṇḍava-mandala). They also bore the epithet Durmukhakshitipāla-labdha-vara-prasada (those who had secured the gracious boon of king Durmukha), the significance of which is not clear. Vira Bibbarasa was an early member of this family who distinguished himself by his valour, philanthropy and religious fervour. Another renowned member of a later date was Vira Gonkarasa who was a subordinate of the Western Chalukya king Taila III in A. D. 1162. Vira Gonkarasa's son Udayaditya and Vira Gonkarasa, son of Vira Kāļarasa who must be another chief of the same family, figure jointly as donors in an inscription at Kalagi of the reign of the Kalachuri ruler Raya-Murāri Sōvidēva, dated in A. D. 1173. The Banas are a conspicuous family of chiefs who played a subordinate rôle in the political history of South India from the 3rd to the 16th century A. D. They had spread into various branches and settled themselves in parts of the Andhra Desa, Tamil Naḍ and Mysore State.1 But the present family which may be designated the Banas of Khandava-mandala has been brought to light for the first time by the inscriptions of this area.
JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA
I may incidentally point out here the presence of a member of the Bāņa family in an unfamiliar region, which has remained unnoticed so far. In an earlier context I have reviewed a few Jaina inscriptions from Lakkundi, in the Gadag taluk, Dharwar Dt. On the base of a pillar in the Nannesvara temple in this village is incised an inscription which states that the rows of pillars in the said temple were ordered to be prepared by Devalabbe of the Hebbāņa family. Some members of the Bana extraction describe themselves as the Per-Baņas or Heb-Baņas, i. e., Great Bāņas. Such
1 "The Banas in South India'; Journal of Indian History, Vol. XXIX (1951), pp. 153 ff. 2 The Banas of Khandava-maṇḍala'; Journal of Oriental Research, Vol. XXI, Parts I-IV, pp. 98-101.
3 See pp. 140-41 above.
4 An. Rep. on S. I. Epigraphy, 1926-27, Appendix F, No. 47.
