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CRITICAL TIMES
237 directly associated with the Drāvida sangha. Although convention and respect for the memory of the great leaders of the past made the scribes of some inscriptions associate the names of Bhadrabāhu, Kondakunda, and Samantabhadra with the origin of the Drāvida sangha, yet we know from inscriptions that only four Jaina preceptors were primarily connected with the Drāvida sangha. These were Bhūtabali, Puşpadanta, Vajranandi, and Patrakesarisvāmi. Thus in a record of A.D. 1160 we have the following :-“... Arunguļānvaya of the Drāvida sangha which had come down increasing from Bhūtabali and Puşpadanta Bhattāraka, from Samantabhadrāsvāmi and Akalankadeva, from Vakragrivācārya, from Vajranandi Bhațțāraka ", and others down to Vasupūjyasvāmi. The same with slight variations is repeated in a record dated A.D. 1169.2 The first two Bhūtabali and Puşpadanta were the disciples of Ardhabali. This is proved by the record of A.D. 1398 which asserts that Ardhabali “shonc with his two disciples Puşpadanta and Bhūtabali."3 Therefore, it was the immediate disciples of Ardhabali who were responsible for the growth of the Drāvida sangha. And as regards Patrakesarisvāmi, who is called in a record of A.D. 1136 the head of the Dramiļa sangha, we know from the inscription of A.D. 1129 that he came after Vajranandi, and that by the grace of Padmavati he refuted the trailaksana theory.
Hence it is clear from the above facts that, in spite of the occasional reference to the earlier preceptors like Bhadrabāhu, etc., the institution of the four sanghas from the ori
1. E. C. VI, Kd. 69, p. 13. 2. Ibid., V. Ak. 1, p. 112. 3. Ibid., II. 254, p. 110. 4. Ibid., V, B1, 17, p. 51.
