Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs

SR No.: 011025
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: P B Desai
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1957
Total Pages: 495
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 33 MB

Page 285

JAINA EPIGRAPHS: PART II
ceremony was making several propitiatory gifts according to the injunctions of the Puranas, on the way back from his expedition against the city of Dhara which he reduced to a helpless state, and after an interview with Jajjugi Jagadeva, son of Udayi, a petition was submitted to the king at the opportune moment by Bhivanayya, Chief Minister (Mahapradhana), Superintendent of Home Affairs (Manevergade), Commissioner of Records (Pattalekarana) and Commander of Forces (Dandanayaka); and it was granted. Lines 47-57. Accordingly, for the merit of Nritya-Vidyadhari Chandaladēvi, Chaudhare Rakkasayya Nayaka bestowed land, garden, oil-mill and houses for performing the daily ablutions and eight-fold worship of the two deities, for conducting special rituals on Jivadayashṭami and other ceremonial occasions, for feeding the ascetics and for executing the repairs in the temple of Parsvanatha and also of Santinatha in the adjoining hall, constructed by him at Haḍangile which along with six other villages was under his jurisdiction. These villages were situated in the kampaņa of Sixty Villages among the Hundred and Twenty of Gonka in the province of Alande Thousand. The gift was entrusted into the hands of his teacher Balachandra who belonged to the senior section (piriya samudaya) of the Mula Samgha, Desiga gana and Pustaka gachcha. The endowed property was to be maintained with scrupulous care and piety by the successive pupils of the teacher. Rakkasayya Nayaka set up this inscribed tablet so that the succeeding descendants of his family and the future rulers might preserve this charity in perpetuity with the sun and the moon. May good fortune and auspiciousness attend this as long as this earth endures.
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Lines 57-67. Benediction on the preservers of the religious charity and imprecation against its transgressors.
INSCRIPTION No. 3
(Found in a Deserted Temple at Sēdam)
This inscription was found incised on a pilaster on the right of the entrance in the verandah of a deserted Jaina temple at Seḍam.' The temple is situated in the locality known as Seṭṭiyara Uni, i. e., Settis' Quarters. This name is significant, as it denotes that this locality was once inhabited mainly by the members of the merchant class, who, possibly, were Jaina by persuasion. The precincts of the temple were grossly misappropriated by the tenants of the nighbouring houses, who had stacked its interior with cattle fodder and used its verandah for storing large quantities of cowdung meant for preparing fuel cakes. The inscribed portion of the pilaster measures 46 .5 inches in length and 12 .8 inches in breadth. At the top of it are carved the familiar representa
1 Bare texts in Kannada script of this and the following inscription have been published in the South Indian Inscriptions, Vol, VII, Nos. 723-24,