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CRITICAL TIMES
247 in that village in the 38th regnal year of the Coļa king Parāntaka I (A.D. 945 ?).1 It cannot be made out whether the Jaina guru Ariştanemi mentioned here was identical with his namesake hailing from Kadaikottur, and who was said to have been the pupil of Paravādimalla of Tirumala, in a Tamil-Grantha record found in Tirumalai in the North Arcot district.2
But we know that Tirumalai was, indeed, a Jaina centre in the first quarter of the eleventh century A.D. An inscription found there, and dated in the 21st regnal year of king Rāja Rāja I (A.D. 1006), affirms that a Jaina sage named Gunavīramuni built a sluice called after (his?) Jaina teacher Gaņisekhara who was skilled in all elegant arts. Another record but of the 12th regnal year of king Rājendra Deva I (A.D. 1024) records the gift of money for the lamp and worship in the Jaina temple on the Tirumalai (hill) by the wife of a merchant of Malliyūr. The Jaina temple, it is interesting to note, had been founded by the Cola king's aunt Kundavi.4 A Jaina image of Arhat was set up here at Tirumalai by a lady of Ponnūr in the 12th regnal year of Rājanārāyaṇa Sambuvarāya (who was perhaps the contemporary of the Cola king Rāja Rāja III).5
Vēdal called Vida! alias Mādevi Arindamangalam, also in the North Arcot district, contained a Jaina basadi. The locality was called Vidārpațţi in a record dated in the 14th regnal year of a Pallava king named merely Nandi,
1. 53 of 1900; Rangacharya, Top List, I, p. 57. 2. 88 of 1887 ; Rangacharya, ibid, I, pp. 80-81.
3. 82 of 1887 ; Rangacharya, ibid, I, p. 80 where Rangacharya has a note on Guņavira.
4. 80 of 1887; S. 1. I., I, pp. 95 99; E. I. IX. pp. 229-223. 5. 85 of 1887. 6. 8? of 1908.