________________
258
MEDIEVAL JAINISM
settlement in the eleventh century A.D.1
In the first quarter of the twelfth century A.D. we have Talatāļa mentioned as an important Jaina locality, probably because of its association with the guru of the great Jaina general Ganga Rāja. An inscription found in the Kallubasti at Kanegrāma, Tirthahalli tāluka, and assigned to about A.D. 1093 by Rice, relates the following-That Maladharideva, who by the severity of his penance had his body covered with dust which was never removed, "being like iron a long time rusty, and having become like a white ant-hill," belonged to the Talatāla basadi which was attached to the Lokiyabbe basadi. It was at the Talatāļa basadi on the date specified, that his disciple Subhacandradeva died in the orthodox manner.2
1. M. A. R. for 1913-4, p. 35.
2. E. C. VIII TI. 199, p. 207. We suppose the Subhacandradeva mentioned here was the guru of General Ganga Rāja and the disciple of the celebrated Gandavimukta Maladhärideva. There was another teacher of the same name, who was the disciple of Maladhari Rāmacandradeva. We presume that the record in question refers to Subhacandra, the guru of Ganga Rāja, on the following considerations :-The praise given in the above Tirthahalli record to Maladharideva agrees with that given to him in a Sravana Belgola record which, among other things, says that the "dirt on Maladhärideva's body, which was overgrown with an ant-hill, looked as if it were a close-fitting armour of black iron that had not yet been doffed." It is this latter record from Sravana Belgola which tells us that Subhacandra died in Saka 1045 Subhakt (A.D. 1123). (E. C. II. 117, p. 47). This date cannot be reconciled with the date of the Tirthahalli inscription which gives merely the cyclic year Angirasa, and the details Puşymäsa, Bahuļa saptami, Adityavāra, for the death of Subhacandra. (E. C. VIII. Tl. 199, text, p. 694). These details are insufficient to fix the date, but they may stand for A.D. 1092, Thursday (and not Sunday), Dec. the 23rd. Swamikannu, Ind. Ephem., III. p. 187.
