Simhanagadde Jain temple

The Jain establishment at Narasimharajapura predates the present prominence of the Jwalamalini shrine. Archaeological documentation records several Jain monuments at the site and a medieval image of Shantinatha bearing a 14th-century inscription.^[2] The Shantinatha Basadi is constructed of laterite and has a tiled roof. Its principal image is a 3-foot (0.91 m) dark stone figure of Shantinatha bearing an inscription assigned to the 14th century.^[2] The inscription provides securely dated evidence for Jain religious activity in the area during the medieval period. The Jwalamalini image presently associated with Simhanagadde is generally assigned in later accounts to around the 15th–16th centuries. The historical circumstances of its installation at Simhanagadde, however, are intertwined with later religious tradition and cannot be established as precisely as the dated Shantinatha inscription.

Tradition associates the establishment of the Jwalamalini shrine with a Jain ascetic named Chikka Samantabhadra. According to the tradition, the image was brought from another Jain centre and installed at Simhanagadde. The details of this account should be regarded as religious tradition rather than securely dated epigraphical history.

The temple belongs to the Vijayanagara period and forms part of the Yapaniya sect of Mula Sangha.^[3]

The temple is considered one of the main Jain centres in Karnataka.^[4] The main temple is dedicated to the goddess Jwalamalini.^[5] Jwalamalini presides as the guardian deity of the temple. Jwalamalini is seated in Sukhasana posture with her eight hands carrying dāna, double arrow, chakra, trishula, pasha, flag, bowlet and kalasa. The goddess is seated on a buffalo pedestal. The pedestal has a three-line Kannada inscription.^[2]

The Jwalamalini image represents the goddess with multiple arms carrying attributes associated with her protective role in Jain iconography. The wider Jain complex at Simhanagadde includes a number of separate shrines. The historically important Shantinatha Basadi preserves the 3-foot (0.91 m) medieval image of Shantinatha with its 14th-century inscription.^[2] The coexistence of the medieval Tirthankara shrine and the later prominence of Jwalamalini illustrates the development of the site from a medieval Jain settlement into a major centre for the worship of the Jain protective goddess. The temple is famous for its chaturvidha (four-fold) dāna' tradition.^[6]

The temple complex includes a Jain Matha and is a site for one of the 11 surviving Bhattarak in Karnataka.^[7][8]

Simhanagadde is also associated with the Bhattaraka tradition of Digambara Jainism. Bhattarakas were resident Jain pontiffs who historically supervised temples and religious institutions and participated in the preservation and transmission of Jain learning.

The survival of a Bhattaraka institution at Simhanagadde reflects the broader historical importance of permanent Digambara monastic establishments in Karnataka.

The Shantinatha Basadi is one of the historically significant monuments at Simhanagadde. M. H. Krishna, in the Annual Report of the Mysore Archaeological Department, described the structure as being built of laterite with a tiled roof. The mulnayak is a dark stone image of Shantinatha approximately 3 feet (0.91 m) high. An inscription on the image has been dated to the 14th century.^[2] The image and inscription are important because they provide archaeological and epigraphical evidence for Jain activity at Narasimharajapura before the period traditionally associated with the establishment of the Jwalamalini shrine.

The Chandraprabha Basadi is built using wood and stone. The mulnayak of the temple is a 2.5 feet (0.76 m) white marble idol of Chandraprabha seated in lotus position with shrivatsa carved on the chest and symbol of moon carved on the pedestal.^[2]

The temple is particularly associated with the worship of Jwalamalini as a protective deity. Although Jain worship is principally centred on the Tirthankaras, yakshas and yakshinis such as Jwalamalini developed important subsidiary devotional traditions. Simhanagadde consequently combines the worship of the Tirthankaras, represented by shrines such as the Shantinatha Basadi, with a particularly prominent tradition of devotion to Jwalamalini.

• Humcha Jain temples
• Padmavati
• Jain Matha, Shravanabelgola