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20: Śramana, Vol 64, No. III, July-Sept. 2013
8
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
101.
102.
103.
104.
105.
106.
107.
108.
109.
Journal of the Epigraphical Society of India, Vol. IV, pp. 136 ff. Jawaharlal, Jainism in Andhra: As Depicted in Inscriptions, p.188.
Jawaharlal also discusses another cave in a hill in Konaku Gla in Anantapur district. He claimsthat this "wide natural cave" was originally "the domicile of the famous saint Kundakundacharya" (2001:135). However, this cave is also "devoid of any carvings "and the earliest antiquities found in its vicinity date from the 12thcentury CE (ibid.). The attribution of this cave to Kundakunda (see Jawaharlal 1994:88-89), is only possible if we agree with Jawaharlal's reasoning that Kundakunda's original name was Padmanandin. The first scholar to identify Konakulla as the birthplace of Kundakunda was Upadhye (see A.N. Upadhye(ed.), Pravacanasăra, Introduction.)
For discussion of archaeological finds see Desai, Jainism in South India, 15-17. For discussion of the epigraphic evidence see Desai, Jainism in South India, 17-14 and Jawaharlal, Jainism in Andhra: As Depicted in Inscriptions.
H. Sarkar extends the high period of Jainism in Andhra Pradesh from the 7th to 14th centuries CE (H. Sarkar, "Glimpses of Jaina Vestiges in Andhradesa," Nirgrantha 2 (1996): 70.). Desai, Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs, 18-19.
Most inscriptions have been dated on the basis of "archaic linguistic and paleographic features "(I. Mahadevan, Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), 7.). However, inscriptions on burial ceramics at the site of Porunthal, excavated by K Rajan have pushed the date of the earliest Tamil-Brahmi scripts back to 5th century BC, see Kavita Kishore, "Porunthal Excavations Prove Existence of Indian Scripts in 5th Century Bc," The Hindu, October 15, 2011 2011. One of the inscribed pots contained grains of paddy. This paddy was dated using AMS (accelerated mass spectrometry) at the Beta Analytic Laboratory to 450 BCE (Rajan personal communication).
Desai, Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs.
K.V. Ramesh, "Appendix: Jaina Epigraphs in Tamil," in Jaina Literature in Tamil, ed. A. Chakravarti (Mysore: Bharatiya Jnanapitha Publication, 1974).
Iravatham Mahadevan, "Corpus of the Tamil-Brahmi Inscriptions," in Kalvemmuk Karuttaranku, ed. R. Nagaswamy (Madras: Madras Books, 1968). Mahadevan, Early Tamil Epigraphy.
A. Ekambaranathan and C. K. Sivaprakasam, Jaina Inscriptions in Tamilnadu: A Topographical List (Madras: Research Foundation for Jainology, 1987). A. Ekambaranathan, Jainism in Tamilnadu: Art and Archaeology (Mississauga: Jain Humanities Press, 1996). --, Jaina Archaeological Heritage of Tamilnadu (Lucknow: Published on behalf of the Dept. of Ancient History and Archaeology. [University of Madras] by Shri Bharatvarshiya Digamber Jain (Teerth Sanrakshini) Mahasabha, 2005). Mahadevan, Early Tamil Epigraphy, 7.
Ekambaranathan, Jainism in Tamilnadu: Art and Archaeology, 5.
Ibid.
Unless otherwise specified, the nos. provided relate to Mahadevan's catalogue in Early Tamil Epigraphy.
Mahadevan, Early Tamil Epigraphy, 15.
This has been confirmed on the basis of my own spatial analysis as well as the work of Rajan and Yatheeskumar K. Rajan and V.P. Yathees Kumar, "Cultural Transformation
