Jinamanjari 2000 09 No 22

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

Page 13

cave exists. It is in this cave Kundakunda spent time for his deep meditation and other austerities. The cave has a flat horizontal roof and as one enters it, an open space with an uniform floor is encountered. It can accommodate about fifty people. The natural light enters only through the entrance.
The cave is perhaps the earliest Jaina centre in Andhra associated with Kundakunda whose assigned date is the beginning of the Common Era. On the hillock antiquities belonging to thirteenth century are found.
VADDAMĀNU is the Telugu name etymologically derived from Vardhmāna, the name of the last Jina Mahāvira. Archaeological excavations assign the date from second B.C.E to sixth C.E." There are two stone stūpas: a pyramidal one with a series of tiers at regular intervals and a platform paved with bricks, and a wheeled one with spokes. The study at the site pushes back the antiquity of Jaina stūpa in India to the period earlier than Kankila Tila at Mathura.
BODHAN. According to the Jaina legend, its antiquity goes back to the period of Bharata and Bāhubali. It was the capital of Asmaka ruled by Bāhubali, the younger son of the first Jina Rşabha. In the Jaina texts, it was known as Potali, Podana, Bodana, Bahudhanya. There are several Jaina antiquities in the form of inscriptions and sculptures from the time of the Rāśtrakutas and the Western Cālukyas of Kalyāņi - dating from ninth to twelfth C.E.20 The present Deval Mosque there, which was originally a Jaina temple as can be seen from a large number of Tirthankara images on the pillars and in niches, was converted by Mohamed Bin Tughlaq.
RAMATIRTHAM is a village, which according to records, is identified with the ancient Rāmagiri. There lies a large number of caves and images on the Gurubhakta hill. The well known Jaina physician Ugrāditya, author of the Kalyānakāra, studied science at the place under his teacher Srinanadin.21 Inscription engraved on the wall of the Durgapanca cave mentions that Trikālayõgi Siddhāntadēva of Dēsigana, teacher of one Vimalāditya, visited the place to pay homage to the shrine. 22
The influence of the Rāśtrakuta and the Cālukya architecture is prominently seen here. Ambika and other Jaina images under the sacred tree with triple umbrella are seen in the prabha which is circular in Cālukya style and is decorated by dots in the circles along its circumference. Figures of three lions are carved below the seat in the