Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 7

Author(s): Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

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Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin No. 7
the early Kakatiyas. The Warangal Kaifi yat informs that there was a hill called 'Hanumadgiri' to the north-east of Hidamhaśrama in north Dandaka, the seat of devas and rişhis. This Hanumadgiri was discovered by a person called Ekāmbaranātha (the muni with a single cloth), probably a Svetāmbara Jaina muni who established several dieties in it, Siddheśvara in the middle, Devi Padmākşi in the west, Durga Sakti in the north, Gopalamūrti in the south and Bhadrakāļi in the east. It is, therefore, likely that these deities indeed be the later Saivate variants of the original Jaina deities Siddha and Padmavati.
Regarding the patronage of the early Kakatiyas, it is known from the Kāzipet Dargā inscription that Prola I obtained Anumakonda Vishaya as brief from Trailokyamalla Someśvara I (A. D. 1042-1068). According to the Padmākşi temple inscription? Beta II, son, of Prola I, under the able guidance of his minister Vaija, managed to annex Sabbi1000 to his existing Anumakonda Vishaya and got it ratified by his over lord, Vikramāditya VI. Further, the same inscription records that Vaija's son, Per gada Beta, who became the minister of Kakatiya Prola II, constructed some temples and his wife Mailama built a Kadalālaya Basadi, on the top of the hill at Anumakonda and endowed it with some land. In the light of the epigraph and the existing Jaina images, it has been aptly observed that the present Goddess Padmākşi near Anumakonda was originally a Jaina goddess, probably, Padmāvati, the Sāsanadevi of Pārsvanātha. H. Krishna Sastry is perhaps right in saying that during the time of Prola II, the goddess must have been popularly known as Padmāvati. P. V. P. Sastri4 further says that it is also reasonable to suppose that this goddess was installed by Beta I, the first Kākatiya chief and the people generally called it Kakati as it was set up by a Kakatiya chief. From the Sanigaram records the son of Beta's minister Vaijarāja is known to have renovated the Duddhamalla Jainālaya of the village Sanigaram. The local recordo informs us that the Jainas that were prosecuted at places like Rājahmundry resorted to Anumakonda for protection. Since, then, Anumakonda continued to be a Jaina centre even in the time of Pratāpasudra as is evidenced by the Jaina work Jainendrakal yāna, written by Appayyachārya a disciple of Pushpasena in A. D. 1139. According to C. Vira Bhadra Rao, the early Kākatiyas
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1. No:15, Inscription of Andhra Pradesh Warangal district. 2. No. 22, Inscription of Andhra Pradesh Warangal district.
EI. IX, p. 257. 4. JAHRS, XXXVI, Part I, p. 38.
No. 14, Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh, Karimnagar District. 6. Orugellu Kaifi yat, L. R. XI, pp. 133 ff.