Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs

Author(s): P B Desai
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

Page 419

REVIEW AND RETROSPROT
893 Below the inscription are carved two female figures with folded hands facing each other with a burning lamp in the centre.'
Other places of interest in the Bijapur area are Tumbigi in the Muddebihal taluk, Hūvina-Hippargi in the Bagevadi taluk, Halsangi in the Indi taluk, Algūr in the Jamkhandi taluk and Mudhol. The last named town is noted to be the native place of the famous Kannada poet Ranna. But when I explored this locality recently, I found that it contained very few Jaina antiquities worth the name. A Tīrthakara image of a late date was all that I could detect in a ruined site. No Jaina families are known to reside here at present. This provides one more instance showing how places which were once eminent centres of Jainism have in course of several centuries been completely wiped out of all traces of that faith.
A damaged inscription in Kannada found in a cave near Bhose in the Tasgaon taluk of the Satara Dt. mentions the sage Vāmanandi of the Müla Samgha and Kāņār gana. Besides the famous temple of Koppēśvara or Koppanātha, Khidrāpūr in the Kolhapur Dt., has preserved an imposing and handsome temple dedicated to Adinātha. Sirsangi in the Parasgad taluk of the Belgaum Dt. had a Jaina temple of some status and the preceptor Gaņdavimukta Siddhāntadõva was connected with it. The epigraph incised on the Sahasrakūța pillar in the well-preserved Jaina temple at Aināpir in the Athni taluk, states that it was the creation of a pious devotee named Rēvisetti. The renovation of a temple known as Ratnatraya Basadi by Bammaņa is recorded in a 12th century inscription at Athni. From the identification of the figures on the doors as the Jinabimbas and the sculptures of the Jinas inside, it can be determined that the present Virabhadra temple at Nēsaragi in the Sampagaon taluk was originally a Jaina shrine.
Maski in the Raichur Dt. of the Hyderabad State is reputed to be the provenance of a famous Minor Rock Edict of Asoka. Explorations carried on here have revealed that it was also a seat of Jainism in the age of the 11th and the following centuries. It was at this time called Rājadhāni Piriya Mosangi, being the headquarters of the adjoining tract. Two inscriptions of this place dated in A. D. 1027 and 1032 respeotively, speak of the gifts made
1 An. Rep. etc. 1936-37, No. 22. 2 An. Rep. on Epigraphy, 1946-47, App. B, No. 243. 3 This is ths oorreot name of the god siva here. It has been erroneously Sanskritised into
Kopāśvara or Köpanātha and a legend has grown around this form of the name, köpa
meaning anger'. 4 An. Rep. on 8. I. Epigraphy, 1939-40 to 1942-43, App. E, No. 76 of 1940-41. The
original name of this village was ķishišsingi and a local inscription derrates the legend that the sage Kishyaśținga was born on the adjoining bill. Could it bave been derived from the Rishis, i. e., Jaina monks? 50