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JAINA APIGRAPHS: PART IN
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From the expression saudha, which conveys the sense of a dignified structure, used to describe the shrine of Pushpadanta Tīrthankara, it appears to have been a magnificent edifice. We do not know if the lost sculpture in question occupied the place of the central or main image in the sanctuary or served the subsidiary rôle as it was the practice to install the images of other deities by the side of the main deity in the same temple.
TEXT
1 Śri-Mūla-Sam[gha *}' da Balakara-ga[na* ]da'
Pushpadamita-tīrtthamka2 ra saudadali Bommi[ sa ]-maga Sāmsaja
mādida pratime [u*]
TRANSLATION This image was prepared by Sāmsaja, son of Bommisa (for installation) in the mansion of Pushpadanta Tirthankara, owned by the Balakara gana of the illustrious Mūla Samgha.
INSCRIPTION No. 26
(Found on a Hill-rock at Kopbal) This inscription was noticed on a rock of the hill adjacent to the fort area at Kopbal. It is incised on the southern side of the vorge kno Chandrāmana Gudda (or the Hill of Chundrāma). The epigraph is situated about a few yards higher up on the same rock on which the inscription No. 19 is oarved. The epigraph is associated with some carvings which merit our attention.
The carvings comprise the following scenes depicted on the rock olose to the left of the inscription. The scenes are set up in two parallel columns of representation. In the upper panel of the first column immediately to the left of the epigraph is carved the standing figure of a Tirthankara with the triple umbrella at the top and a fly-whisk on either side. The lower panel below this contains the figures of a teacher and two disciples. The teacher is holding in his hand a book of palm leaves, which evidently indicates his act of preaching the holy doctrine from the scriptures. In the lower panel of the adjacent left hand column the same scene of the teacher and two disciples is repeated, In the panel above this in the same column we see a teacher in standing posture. The figure is plain and without decoration.'
1 Here the soribe appears to have used the abbreviations, San for Sanigha and ga for gaya, 2 See Hyderabad Archacological Series, No. 12, plate L, ..
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