________________
CRITICAL TIMES
255 registers the gift of land to the caitya of Mülivaļļi (mod. Mallavalli) by Vijayasakti-arasa.
There is every reason to believe that the famous Nandi Hill once contained a Jinālaya of great antiquity. As in Other places, the original Jina image gave place to that of Gopālasvāmi, all vestiges of Jainism having been lost. These suppositions are based on a beautifully carved boulder with characters of the Ganga period (eighth century A.D.), which gives us the following interesting account of the Nandi Hill. It opens with an invocation to the adorable Vrşabha, the most excellent of the holy Jainas. And then it directly dcals with the antiquities of the Jinālaya on the Nandi Hill thus :-In former times, in the Dvāpārayuga of thc Kali-avasarppiņi, by Rāmasvāmi, the Mahāratha son of Dasaratha. sun in the sky of the Solar racc, (to wit) by Puruşottama, who for the purpose of bringing the world into good order desired to be incarnated as a man--, was the caityabhavana of the adorable Arhat, the lofty one, the omniscient, established. Afterwards by the mother of the Pāņļavas, Kuntidevī, was it rebuilt ancw.
The hill itself is praised thus to the ornament of the carth goddess, a path to the attainment of svarga and mokşa, like the jewel in the head of (the serpent) Dharanendra, who bears up the world, the best of mountains, purified by the presence of the Jainendra caitya, a supreme tīrtha (parama lirtha), having caves suited for the residence of groups of great sșis intent upon the performance of penance, by name
1. M. A. R. for 1920, p. 28, op. cit.
2. Two other instances of Jaina temples which have passed hands are those of Cikka Māgadi and Terakanāmbi. M. A. R. for 1911, p. 19; ibid for 1912, p. 24.
