Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 7

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

Page 226

Historical Role of Jainism
215
are believed to have been the followers of Digambara sect.1 Later, the policy of the Kākatiyas changed and they patronised Saivism.
12. JAINISM UNDER THE POLAVĀSA CHIEFS (1250-1300 A. D.)
In the neighbouring territory of the Kakatiyas, there flourished a petty family called Polavāsa with its principality in the region extending from Pola vasa to Narasampet in the Warangal district. This family consists only five members claiming their origin from Mādhavavarman. Govindapuram, Bājājipet and the Padmākşi ternple inscriptions register the gifts of these chiefs to Jaina Basadis. Bājājipet and Padmākşi temple epigraphs inform us that Medarāja built Vira Kamala Jainālaya and made gifts to Kadalālaya Basadi. His Govidapuram epigraph, which begins with invocation to the feet of Jainadeva, informs us that Nägarāja, the minister of Medarāja, installed the image of Pārsvanātha Jinadeva. Further, the epigraph mentions four Jaina preceptors named Balachandra, Meghachandra, Padmanandin and Megaachandra belonging to the school of Kranürgana and Mesha pashana gachcha. It is to be noticed that during the reigning periods of the early Kākatiyas and Polavara chiefs, Anumakonda, Bājājipet and Sanigaram must have flourished as prosperous Jaina centres.
13. JAINISM UNDER THE NALAMBA PALLAVAS
The Nalamba Pallavas, as contemporary chiefs of the later Chāļukyas, ruled over a kingdom that comprised parts of Andhra and Karnātaka with their capital at Hemāvati in the Anantapūr district. Under their hegemony the tract of the Medaksira Taluk became a flourishing abode of the Jaina faith. This is corroborated by the study of antiquities s
emples, Nishidhi memorials and inscriptions found in a considerable number in the village of Hemāvati. Amarāpuram, Sivaram, and Jammadahalli, Mahendra and his son Ayyappa, Isungola II and his queen, Alapādevi of the Nalamba family, were liberal patrons of Jainism. The Hemāvati inscription (No. 35) belongs to the Nalamba Pallava ruler Mahendra I and his son Ayyappa and registers a gift of land made by the King to a basadi and for the feeding of its tāpasvins.
Further, another inscription from Pātaśivaram (No. 72) informs us that when Tribhuvanamalladeva Bhogadeva Choļa Mahārāja of Nalamba Pallava family was ruling from Henjeru i.e. modern Hemāvati, there lived
1. C. Vira Bhadra Rao : Andhrula Charita, III, pp. 150-152. 2. No. 26, Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh, Warangal district : Govinda
puram Epigraph. 3. JAHRS, XXXVI, Pt. 1, pp. 38 ff.