Jinamanjari 2000 04 No 21

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

Page 86

original stele bearing a Jina is lying inside the hall. The images of Pārsvanatha on the facade of the guḍhamandapa have been deliberately mutilated; this may have been during the Viraśaiva uprising when many Jaina temples in northern Karnataka were forcibly converted into Saivite temples" [Soundara Rajan, K V.: EITA (eds), Meister and Dhaky, M.A.: 1986: 147]
By the way, Annigeri, Puligere, Mulgund and Gadag of this tract were cardinal centers of Jaina faith upto the 13th C.E.., and were continuously under the administration of Jaina rulers. Epigraphic and architectural discoveries of the past six decades have revealed the existence of a large number of Jaina edifice in this track of about 60 kms.
Literary Evidence
Brahmasiva (C. 1175 C.E.) is the first and earliest poet to refer to the conversion of Jaina temples and proselytism. He has mentioned about the appropriation of Jaina houses of worship at Kolhapur and Puligere. Poet Devacandra also reflects identical statements in his work Rajāvaļi Kathāṣāra and has provided data on the destruction of some Jaina temples. He has recorded that Hoysala king Bittideva changed his name to Vişņuvardhana under the influence of Ramanujācarya and converted Jaina house holders and places of worship into Visp sect, including Celuvaraya temple at Melukote (Mandya district), originally a Jaina shrine. Devacandra does not mince matters and states that Sankarācārya uprooted the Jaina idol of Jaina temple at Sringeri and installed an idol of Sarasvati. Historians have also corroborated the statement with evidence. A Jaina temple exists to this day by the side of this. Sarasvati temple is also converted to a larger extent. A huge mānastambha which is bereaved of all Jaina traces in front Sarasvati shrine also provides the clue substantiating the statement of Devacandra.
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Devacandra cites two more such examples: One, the image of Mallinatha Tirthankara being replaced by Śivalinga on the Beṭṭadapura hill (Mysore district) and christened as god Malleśvara Two, a Jaina temple being converted into a Virasaiva place of worship at Talkad (Mysore district). In chapter ten, Devacandra gives an account of the Muslim king of Delhi, who converted Jaina shrines into Muslim mosques. Devacandra cites particular incident of the Jaina caves at Candradrona hill being requisitioned by the fakirs. Another Jaina author, Candrasagara Varni alias Brahmaṇānka, a contemporary of Devacandra, is also vociferous and highly vocal about this fact.
Parallel examples are very many, with another about 38 temples of Jaina faith being appropriated by the non-Jaina sects. Analogues conditions prevail in the neighbouring states of Andradeśa, Tamilnadu, Kerala and Maharaṣṭra.
Epitome
1. Most of the Jaina shrines are converted into Anjaneya (Hanumanta) temples. 2. Numerically, after Anjaneya temples, number of conversion to Virabhadra and Rāmēśvara temples are noted.
3. Even though the tutelary figure Jina either seated or standing is erased in many temples, yet it is preserved in some shrines.
4. Original monuments of Jaina edifice are some how preserved along the replaced ones, in some places. Such Jaina vestiges contain the images of Jina and other Jaina deities, either mutilated or intact, and with lithic records.
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