Book Title: Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs
Author(s): P B Desai
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
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JAINISH IN SOUTH INDIA earlier paintings oovered up by the existing works have also been observed here.!
HERMITAGE OF VEPĀL: Now we may notice two places in the Wandiwash taluk of the North Arcot Dt. which were characteristic resorts of the Jaina creed. Here also we have to negotiate, as before, with hills and oaverns and boulders and rocks. Not far away from the village of Vedal are hills whose boulders have disclosed the existence of four Jaina inscriptions." Two of these epigraphs are engraved in archaic characters of the 8th and 9th centuries A. D. and belong to the times of the Pallava king Nandivarman II and the Chola monarch Aditya I. The natural caverns on the hills which have been extended by Maņdapas of later construction, appear to heve been used as a monastery and a hermitage by Jaina monks and nuns in the mediaeval centuries. In the inscription of the time of the Pallava rulerø this hill resort has bean referred to as Viļāl and Viļārpalli which means the Jaina monastery at Vidāl'.
LADY PRECEPTOR: The other epigraph" assigned to the reign of the Chola ruler Aditya I in the second half of the 9th century A. D. furnishes some interesting details in regard to the Jaina church and the ascetic teachers who were held in esteem by the residents of the locality in general and the followers of the Jaina Law in particular. Here was residing in the cave near the boulder bearing the inscription, a renowned lady teacher named Kanakavira Kurattiyar. She was the pupil and follower of the teacher Guņakīrti Bhațāra of Vidāl. A. dispute arose between the lady teacher and her five hundred lady pupils on one side and the four hundred nuns of a different group on the other. In this situation the inhabitants of the locality who were lay disciples of the school to which Kanakavīra Kurattiyāro belonged, came forword with an assurance that they would protect the lady preceptor and her pupils and provide for their maintenance. In this manner came to prominence the hermitage at Vedal presided over by the distinguished nun, with the support of the Jaina adherents. We may incidentally note that Mādēvi Arāndimangalam was another name of Vidāl.
Relios Ar PonnŪR: Relics of the Jaina faith have been preserved to the present day at Ponnür which must have been an influential centre of the creed at one time. The place possesses a fairly big shrine of
1 Vincent Smith: History of Fine Art in India & Ceylon, p. 344. 2 An. Rep. on 8. I. Epigraphy, 1909, Appendix B, Nos. 81-84. 3 Ibid., No. 82. 48. I, I, VOL III, No. 92. 8 This name of the lady preceptor is interesting. Her initiated name Kanakavira does
not indicate a feminine form. Kurattiyar is the honorific plural feminine form of Sanskrit guru.
