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POPULAR SUPPORT
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and the minor places of Jaina influence. We shall first enumerate the major Jaina strongholds, and then pass on to the description of the lesser places of importance.
From the earliest times when Jainism had first made its appearance in the south, it had followed a policy of widespread diffusion which soon secured for it great strongholds in the centre, north, south and west of modern Mysore. These were the following places-Śravana Belgola, Paudanapura, Kopaṇa, Punnaḍ, Hanasoge, Talakad, Humcca, Balligāme, Kuppatur, and Vanavase. Of these two were undoubtedly renowned as mahā-tirthas-Sravana Belgola and Kopana, while Paudanapura seems to have been one of the earliest places associated with the statue of Gommatesvara. The reader must have already surmised from the introductory remarks to this work that the traditions of the great Śrutakevali Bhadrabahu are connected with Sravana Belgola and Punnaḍ. The populous and wealthy region to which the entire sangha was directed, as is related in the earliest rock inscription at Candragiri assigned to A.D. 600, could have been no other than the northern part of Punnaḍ itself." In Kittur (Kirtipura), the capital of Punnaḍ, Vasupūjyadeva of the Tintriņika gaccha, consecrated an image of Pārsvanatha in A.D. 1179.3
As regards Paudanapura we base our remarks concerning its importance on the Sravana Belgola inscription dated A.D. 1180 cited already in connection with the activities of Cam
1. E. C. II. 1, 2, 31, pp. 1, 2, 7. Read also M. A. R. for 1912, pp. 3-9.
2. E. C. II, 1, p. 1; Saletore, Ancient Kingdom of Punnatta in the Indian Culture, III, pp. 303-317.
3. M. A. R. for 1913-4, p. 37. But all traces of Jainism in Punnaḍ have been obliterated.
