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352
JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA
known as Daņakana Bāvi, in the fort area. No part of the mutilated image which surmounted the pedestal could be traced. So we are not in a position to say anything regarding the nature of the image except that it was seated in the Padmāsana posture.
The epigraph is in a fair state of preservation inspite of its having been roughly handled. It consists of two lines. The characters and the language are both Kannada. The inscription mentions no date; but it can approximately be ascribed to the 11-12th century A. D. on considerations of palaeography.
The epigraph contains the following information. The image in question was installed in the shrine of Pushpadanta Tirthankara, which was associated with the Müla Saṁgha and Balakara gaña. The sculpture was made by Sāṁsaja, son of Bomunisa. Balakara gaña is evidently the Balātkāra gana. The two names Bommisa and Sāmsaja and particularly the expression made' in the statement of the record point to the fact that Sāmsaja might have been the sculptor-donor of the image, who not only executed it but dedicated it to the said temple.
Brief though the inscription, it is profoundly significant in that it furnishes, in the first instance, direct confirmatory evidence on the existence of manifold religious institutions in this sovereign centre of Jainism. A local tradition asserts that Kopbal contained an immensely large number of Jaina temples. This tradition finds its support from an allusion in the epigraphical sources also. An inscription from Śravaņa Belgola of the 12th century a. D. informs us that there were twentyfour Jinamuni-samghas in Kopaņa. We might interpret these muni-samghas or monastic organisations with reference to the several ascetic sections or groups, such as the Samgha, gana and gachchha into which the Jaina church was divided. The present epigraph offers a concrete instance to the point. While specifying pointedly that the temple to which the image in question was dedicated, belonged to the Mūla. Samgha and Balātkāra gana, it helps us to believe in the existence of similar shrines owned by other Samghas and gaņas also.
1 The more familiar expression in such contexts is the phrase "caused to be made', when the
donor gets the image made by the soulptor and has the label engraved on its pedestal. ... 2. Ep. Carn., Vol. II, No. 345. 3 According to an inscription from the Shimoga Dt. there lived in Kopana in the first part
of the 12th century A. D. an eminent preceptor named Vaddächärya Vratipati who belonged to the Müla Samgha, Kundakunda anvaya and Kränur gana. The record tells us that he was more renowned than Némidēva (i. e., probably Nēmichandra, the guru of Chăvundarāya). Unfortunately no more details are available about the preceptor Vaddächărya of Kopana who had attained such high reputation among the followers of the fait; see Ep. Carn., Vol. VII, Sh. No. 64; Vol. II, Intro, pp. 14, 25, etc.
