Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): D C Sirkar
Publisher: University of Calcutta

Page 75

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RELIGION AND CULTURE OF THE JAINS
Jina-Kāñci, is said to have been the seat of Akaalnka. The Jina-Kāñci manuscript, cited earlier, also gives the names of Akalanka and Niskalakna after Pūjyapāda, as the principal propagators of the Jain faith.88
K. R. Subramaniam identifies Himaśitala with HiranyavaIman, father of Nandivaraman Pallavamalla.89 In 718 A.D., the ruler of Kāñci was Nandivaraman Pallavamalla himself. Curiously enough, this king is said to have persecuted the Jains, and evidence for it is supposed to exist among the historical sculptures of the Vaikuntha Perumal temple at Kāñcipuram.40 Again, in the Udayendiram copper-plates of his period, the king is said to have confiscated the lands of those whose observances were not in accordance with the law (dharma) and granted them to Brāhmaṇas with all exemptions.41 This is taken to be a reference to the Jains and the confiscation of their lands by the king. But Jain inscriptions of Nandivarman's time are quite numerous and indicate that he was in no way a persecutor of the Jains.
An account of the Jain centres in Tondaimaņdalam under the Pallavas and other ruling families is furnished below.
Under the Pallavas. In the time of Nandivarman II, several Jain centres seem to have flourished, particularly in the hilly regions of the North Arcot District. One of them was Veļāl which had a monastery (Vidār-palli) and also a nunnery.4 2 It continued to be an important centre under the Cola king Aditya I, who supplanted Pallava power in Tondaimandalam. 48
Agalür, near Vedal, had a Jain institution, to which a grant was made in the 50th year of Nandivarman II (780-81 A.D.). 4 4
38 T. N. Ramachandran, op. cit., pp. 19, 216. 39 The Origin of Saivism and its History in the Tamil Land, p.41. 40 M. Rajamanickam, Periya Purāņa Ārāicci, pp. 271-72. 41 S. Ind. Ins., Vol. 11, p. 372, lines 74-75. 42 A. R. Ep., 1908, No. 82. 43 Ibid., Nos. 83-84.
44 M. D. Sampath, 'Jain Inscriptions of Sättamangalam', in Seminar on Inscriptions, p. 161.