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EPIGRAPHIA JAINICA.
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Jainism.
This Jaina period of Andhra-Karnāta Kalinga history and culture started under the auspices of the North Indian Immigrant Members of Ascetic and Warrior Clans, begins, as indicated by these epigraphs well within or even earlier than the Buddhist period. The Kharavēla inscription of Kalinga is the earliest of such known Jaina epigraphs. The date of this inscription is yet in doubt. Nevertheless, its Jaina character, and the antiquity of the references therein to Andhra-Jainism are beyond all doubt. This interpretation of the Kharavēla inscription gives very high antiquity to Jainism in the Kalinga desa which is sometimes conterminous but always contiguous with the Andhra mandala. Thus, what may be called "The Jaina Period of Andhra History and Culture starts quite early in history and well within or even earlier than the Buddhist (or Satavahana) period. Jaina religious life on its ceremonial side and Jaina mythology on its imaginative side are so much like Puranic Brahmanism, that Jaina influence working through the Buddhist period formed an easy and imperceptible transition to Brahmanism, at any rate in the Andhra country. The "Amaravati Marbles" dating back to the Satavahana period, closely studied towards the latter part of the last century, contain among them, as noticed by Dr. Burgess in 1888, (a) the upper part of a round topped
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. In this section I have mostly published in the Jaina Gazette reproduced my articles already of Madras.
