Jinamanjari 1999 09 No 20

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

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Munulagutta Cave (Hill of the Ascetics) is situated on a hillock near Kapparaopet in the Peddapalli taluk of Karimnagar district is the first known and reported natural cave settlement of the Jainas in Andhra. It was brought to light by Dr. P.V.P. Sastry.15 On the brow of a rock overhanging another rock are found four cut stone berths which form a bed-like appearance with one side slightly elevated to serve as head-rest or pillow loft. They do not have any labels which might indicated the date of the cave, or to whom they were meant or who commissioned them, but Dr. Sastry has reported some Satavāhana coins from the site.16 According to the Kalpapradipa of Jinabhadrasūri, he speaks of the patronage of Jainism by the Satavāhana king. 17
Further, it informs that the king became a Jain and built caityās, a term used for Jain temples, and fifty of his viras or śrīdars also built caityās after their respective names. The account along with the discovery of the Satavāhana coins push back the date of the cave to the early Satavāhana period. Dr. N. Ramesan has rightly observed that the antiquity of the cave dates back to the early phases of the dawn of history. 18 In my view, the antiquity of this cave appears to date from pre-history and continued up to the Satavāhana period.
The Jilakaragudem Caves are actually found in a small village of the same name, and are located at about seven miles away from Kamavarapukota mandal of West Godavari district. It can be reached only by bus from Eluru town, the district headquarters of West Godavari. Scholars had named the Jilakaragudem caves wrongly as Guntupalli caves. Until recently it was believed that the ruins there belonged to a Buddhist establishment that flourished in the second century B.C.E. For example, excavators such as Rea and Longhurst have observed a horse-shoe shaped ravine of the sandstone hill running east to west, a circular rock-cut temple containing a monolithic stūpa, a large rock-cut vihāra, a ruined brick caityā, the remains of a large pillared hall, and after examining the inscription, state that these remains indicate an early Buddhist settlement in Andhra;19 however, recent conservation work at the site revealed its Jaina origin.
The discovery of an inscription of the Mahāmēghavāhana Chief of Kalinga Sada20 at Jilakaragudem caves clearly established their Jaina affiliations. It is common knowledge that the family of Mahāmēghavāhana -- to which the Jaina champion emperor Khāravēla as well as the Chief of Kalinga Sada belonged -- extended its full support to Jainism.21 Further, it is known from the above inscription
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