Svasti

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: K S Muddappa Smaraka Trust

Page 70

C.S. Vasudevan, Donation Pattern to the Jinalayas
69
Mahamandalesvara Ahavamalla Permanadi. Kamaladeva Siddhanti received the gift in 1084 A.D.. Kamala Siddhanti was probably the head of the Jaina temple. Kirtivilasa is the title of the king and the temple was probably named after him or got constructed by him.
A record from Pudur dated Chalukya Vikrama year 12, Prabhava, Paushya, Amavasya equivalent to Sunday 26 December 1087 A.D., states that the Mahamandalesvara Hallavarasa of Pumduru who is described as Muchukundurp-Puravaresvara, etc., granted betel leaves, betel nuts, lands, shops, house-sites etc., in Punduru and the income from levy of 2 pana from every village in Ayije-300, on the occasion of Uttarayana Sankranti to the Pallava Jinalaya belonging to the Dravila Samgha after laving the feet of his preceptor Kanakasena bhattaraka." Yet another record" from Gobbur, Raichur district of Karnataka, now preserved in the State Museum at Hyderabad records the gift of money at specified rates by the nakharas, the officers of the mint (Kammatada-adhikarigalu) and the Kammatakaras of agrahara Hiriya Gobburu, to the Brahma Jinalaya for conducting the Chaitra-pavitra in 1109 A.D.. The grant of money was a rarity during the Chalukyas of Kalyana period. The donation, in the majority of cases, included land, both wet and dry, flower garden, and house-sites. As an exception, in this record, income from levy, shops, betel leaves and betel nuts were also gifted. The granting of betel leaves and betel nuts to the temple occupied an important place in the religious rites from early medieval period and continued even during the Vijayanagara period.
Another epigraph from Kolanupaka registers the gift of 2 mattars of gadde (wet land) and flower garden and a gana (oil-mill) to the Jinalaya built by him by Mandalika Gomarasa. The gift was entrusted to Chandrasenacharya, probably the priest of the Jinalaya.19
The Bairanipalli inscription mentions the installation of a Jaina image and the gifts of a mango garden, 20 mattars of karamba land and other lands for repairs of the temple and feeding of the ascetics by Biramaraddi, the dandanayaka of the capital Bhuvanagiri and the 120 karanams of Bekkallu20 in 1125-26 A.D.. At the end of the inscription there is a lengthy description of the donor in Kannada verse, wherein he is said to have belonged to vitti-vamsa of the Raddi caste. Other gifts to the same Jinalaya by Punniraddi of Nanganuru and Reviraddi of Vallampatla are recorded. In this record along with dandanayaka, the officials joined hands in making the donation. The gifting of mango garden to the temple is interesting. The mention that the donor belonged to vitti-vamsa is very interesting. The term vitti is a derived from the
17 APAREP, 1965-66, No. B 28; Andhra Pradesh Government Archaeological Series (hereafter APGAS), III, Mn. No. 58 and No. 33; Jainism in Andhra, No. 53; KIAP, No. 730.
18 AREP, 1960-61, No. B 21; APAREp, 1965, No. 180; HAS, No. 18 p. 51.
19 APAREP, 1965, No. 257; IAP, Nal II, No. 10; Jainism in Andhra No. 56; KIAP, No. 832.
20 AREP, 1983-84, No. B 7; APAREP, 1966, No. 314; IAP, Wr, No. 67; Jainism in Andhra, No. 67; KIAP, No. 902; Hampa Nagarajaiah, 'Shasanagalalli bittakula - Parishilane', Chandrakode, pp. 149-151.