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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM 1000.1 It is in connection with the redoubtable Coļa king Rājādhirāja's and his younger brother Rājendradeva's conAlicts with the Western Cālukyan king Someśvara Āhavamalla that we learn about the importance of this place. In one stone inscription it is called "the beautiful great tirtha of Koppam."2 This name was rightly identified by Rice with Kopaņa. Here was fought a great battle between the Cola king Rājādhirāja Deva and the Western Cālukyan king Someśvara Ahavamalla. The former was an irresistible warrior and had a great many victories to his crcdit. But he was an enemy of the Jainas, and a ruler of blood-thirsty disposition. The anti-Jaina propensity in king Rājādhirāja is proved beyond doubt by the Aņņigere stone inscription of Dharwar which calls him a wicked Cola who had abandoned the religious observances of his family, penetrated into the Belgoļa Country and burnt the Jaina temples crected there by Ganga Permmāļi (i.e., the Western Cālukyan ruler Vikramāditya VI, who was the younger son of king Someśvara I by a Ganga princess3). The blood-thirsty disposition of the Coļā ruler is attested by the Someśvara temple
1. E. C. II, 475, p. 88.
2. Ibid, IX. Intr. p. 16. n. (3) And again in My & Coorg., p. 90. Mr. Charlu seems to suggest that Messrs Kielhorn and Sastri were the first to identify this place. Kannada Ins., p. 2. This is wrong. It cannot be made out how Mr. Charlu failed to notice the works of Rice. Koppam was wrongly identified by Hultzsch with Kuppam and Koppa. South Indian Inscriptions, I. p. 134 ; II, p. 232. Ricc refers to this wrong identification. E. C. IV, Intr. p. 15, and n. (1). Mr. Charlu rejects it. Kannada Ins., pp. 3-4.
3. Fleet, Dyn. Kan. Dts., p. 441 ; Rice, E. C. IX, Intr. p. 17, My & Coorg., p. 90. Rice is incorrect when he calls Ganga Permmādi a Ganga king. Sec E. C. VII. Intr. pp. 19, 166 ; Sk. 83, p. 57 ; Hl. 14, p. 161.
