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JINA PĀRŚVA AND HIS TEMPLES IN INSCRIPTIONS OF KARNATAKA
Hampa Nagarajaiah
Background
1
A movement of constructing Jaina temples in Karnataka had begun in the third century A. D. and the Gangas were the earliest to launch it. The Gangas entered Karnataka alongwith their religious pontiff Simhanandi, an acārya of Kāņūr-gana from Ganga-Perur (Andhra Pradesh) and settled in Kuvalālpura (Kolār). On Nandagiri (Nandi Hills) they built a fort and a Patta-jinālaya, a royal chapel exclusively for the family of the ruling dynasty, called 'Arhat-Paramesti-caityālaya, which in course of time was converted into a Vaisnava temple as Gopalaswamy
(Gopālasvāmī) temple (EC. X(BLR) CB. 29. c. A. D. 750). 1.1. Simultaneously, a branch of the Ganga family proceeded, as guided by the same
Simhanandi ācārya, towards Sivamogga (Simogā). They founded a principality which was to be called 'Mandali-sahasra' [EC. VII-i (BLR) Sh. 4. 1122; MAR. 1912. p. 30, para. 70.; Rice, B. L., Gazetteer, 1, (1897) p. 311). Konganivarmă (A. D. 350-70) constructed a Patta-jinālaya [EC. VII-i. Sh. 4. 1122; Sharma, I.K. : 1983 : 67-83] also known as Tirthada basadi. [In Kannada, basadi and basti (from
Sanskrit vasati) means a Jaina temple.) 1.1.1. The Gangas of Kuvalālpura gradually moved southwards via Manne (Mānyapura),
Śwagange Hill, and Mandya and Mysore districts, finally settled at Talai-kad, 'umbrella like forest' (Talkād). They, and their subordinate chiefs, built basadis at various places : at Manne (EC. IX (BLR) NI. 60. A. D. 797], Śrīpura [EC VII(R) Ng. 149. A. D. 776), Nonamangala [EC. X. (BLR) Mālür, 72. c. A. D. 425.), Perbolal [EC. X (1905) Mālür 73. A. D. 370] et Cetera. At Kanakagiri-tīrtha, their feudatories, Mañaleras, built basadis in brick on the smaller hill and erected an image of Bahubali (10') on the larger hill, this was a hundred years before the famous Gommaţa image at Śravanabelgola (A. D. 987). The early Kadambas of Banavāsi, who ruled between A. D. 430 and 535, gave an impetus to the construction of basadis and patronised the Nirgrantha, Kūrcaka, Yāpaniya, and the Śvetapata sects (Gopal : 1985 : No. 8. c. 5th cent. A. D.). Arhadāyatana at Palāsikā, modern Halsi in Belgaum District (CKI : p. 9), a Kāmajinālaya at Guļnāpur near Banavāsi (CKI: No. 22 : 5th cent. A. D.), and Padmālaya, a temple for Padmāvati, companion Yakși of Dharanendra, at Kallīli
near Gudnāpur (ibid., No. 30. 5th cent. A. D.). 1.2.1. The Calukyas of Bādāmī (Vätāpi), who swallowed the Ādi-Kadambas of Banavāsi,
1.2.
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