The Colas c33.40

c33.40

In fact, the place of the Great Temple in the economy of the capital city and of the empire can hardly be exaggerated. Its construction must have extended By the side of Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism and the other forms taken by Hinduism to which attention has been drawn, Jainism had a fair following and enjoyed the patronage of the princes and people, though not to the same extent as the orthodox creeds. The *paḷḷic-candam*, the land of the *paḷḷi* (Jaina temple), was a recognised category of tax-free land known to the revenue accounts of the time. Tamil literature was greatly enriched by the writings of Jain authors, and legend avers that as late as the middle of the twelfth century Śēkkiḻār was goaded into the composition of his magnificent ‘Lives of the Saints’ (*Periya-purāṇam*) by king Kulōttunga II seeking literary enjoyment in the verses of the *Śīvaka-Śindāmaṇi*, a secular *kāvya* in Tamil by a Jain author. Vestiges of Jainism have been discovered in the Travancore country which, though undated, may with some confidence be assigned to the period extending from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries.⁸⁵ And the Cōḷa inscriptions contain noteworthy references to Jain centres in the Tamil districts. The Udayēndiram plates of Hastimalla record that the Digambara Jains had an ancient *paḷḷic-candam* comprising two *paṭṭis* of land which were specially excluded from the gift of the village of Kaḍaikkōṭṭūr made in the reign of Parāntaka I.⁸⁶ There was at Vēḍāl (N. Arcot) a large Jain monastery in which some dispute arose between one nun and her five hundred pupils on the one part and four hundred nuns on the other, and was put an end to only by the lay Jains of the place taking under their protection one of the parties to the dispute.⁸⁷ This was about A.D. 885. At Śīṟṟāmūr in South Arcot an inscription of the seventeenth year of a Rājakesari records the provision of a lamp in the *maṇḍapa* of the temple of Pārśvanātha in which the scripture was expounded.⁸⁸ A certain Gangāśūrapperumbaḷḷi of Rājēndrapuram finds mention in a record from Tirakkōl (N. Arcot);⁸⁹ and a Kanakasēnabhaṭāra who had the *paḷḷi* is found at Śendalai in the twelfth year of a Parakēsari.⁹⁰ At Ānandamangalam in the Chingleput district, on a boulder which bears in a line the sculptures of three groups of Jaina figures, is found engraved a record which provides for the daily feeding of one *aḍigaḷ* in the Jinagirip-paḷḷi.⁹¹ This record is dated A.D. 945 in the reign of Parāntaka I. In the same year, a pupil of Ariṣṭanēmibhaṭāra, of the big Jain settlement of Tiruppāṉmalai, Pattinik-kuratti-aḍigal by name, caused a well to be dug at Viḻāppākkam, and the well and a house were constituted into a nunnery, under the supervision of 'the twenty-four' of the place.⁹² In the seventeenth year of Rājarāja, two lamps were endowed by a land grant to the big monastery (*periya-paḷḷi*) in Tirunaṟungoṇḍai, a *paḷḷic-candam* in South Arcot.⁹³ Tirumalai near Pōḷūr in North Arcot, and Tirumalavāḍi in the Trichinopoly district where Kundavai built a Jain temple were other great Jain centres of the time.⁹⁴ At Tirupparuttikkuṉṟam, a suburb of Kāñcīpuram, there is a celebrated Jain shrine to this day. This place is often called Jina Kāñcī, and its *Ṛṣisamudāya*, congregation of monks, is said to have purchased some land about A.D. 1116,⁹⁵ and the same *samudāya* is just mentioned in another inscription of a slightly later date in the reign of Vikramacōḷa.⁹⁶ An undated inscription of the reign of Kulōttunga I records a gift of land to a *perumbaḷḷi* (big Jain temple), called after the king's name, at Kuhūr, in the Tanjore district.⁹⁷ Two other *paḷḷis* are mentioned in an inscription of A.D. 1194 from Maruttuvakkuḍi, Tanjore district.⁹⁸ The settlement at Jina-Kāñcī is once more mentioned in A.D. 1199, when Kurukkaḷ Candrakīrtti and some others are said to have exerted themselves to secure the grant of a *paḷḷic-canda iraiyili* for this important shrine.