Demarcating Sacred Space The Jina Images at Kalugumalai

SR No.: 007302
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Lisa N Owen
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 2010
Total Pages: 28
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 2 MB

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We can also turn to the epigraphical evidence at Kalugumalai to better understand worship activities. While a few of Kalugumalai's donative inscriptions mention general worship/service (tiruppaņi) (SII 5.357), sacred offerings (tiru amutu) (SII 5.361), a gift of ghee or sheep for sustaining perpetual lamps (SII 5.307-8 and 5.328), and the practice of image lustration (abhișeka) (SII 5.361), the majority of these activities appear to have been directed at a Jina image enshrined at a neighboring site called Tirunechchuram." Although some scholars have identified Tirunechchuram as the original name of Kalugumalai (Desai 1957: 66 and JIT 1987: 63), I am not entirely convinced that these sites are one and the same. In the inscriptions at Kalugumalai, the Jina of Tirunechchuram is identified as either Araimalai Alvār, "Lord of the Rocky Hill" (SII 5.357 and 5.361), or as Tirumalai Merpatara, "Mountain Lord” (SII 5.308). According to Leslie Orr's examination of these inscriptions, the Jina (Araimalai Alvār / Tirumalai Merpatara) of Tirunechchuram is referred to in the singular, suggesting that the records do not indicate the boulder site of Kalugumalai with its numerous Jinas. Moreover, one of the inscriptions (SII 5.308) is not associated with a Jina relief and is in fact inscribed on a separate rock from the main groups of carvings. The likelihood that Tirunechchuram is in fact not identical with Kalugumalai is further demonstrated in the two inscriptions that mention ritual activities to Araimalai Alvār (SII 5.357 and 5.361). In both of these records, the acts of tiruppaņi and abhiseka form part of the identification of the donors (i.e., "[donor's name] who performs tiruppaņi / abhişeka for Araimalai Āļvār of Tirunechchuram"). Furthermore, the actual object of donation recorded in these epigraphs is not a Jina image but the gift of a stone pillar. As there are seemingly no remains of any pillars at Kalugumalai, this type of donation likely indicates that a structural temple was established at Tirunechchuram. If this is indeed the case, the reliefs and their inscriptions at Kalugumalai may have served as a local "archive” that documented the donations and worship practices conducted at both sites.
17 I am grateful to Leslie Orr for examining these inscriptions and for correcting my misconceptions regarding their content. The following description is based on her assessment of these fragmented records.
18 Alternatively, if Desai and others are correct in that Tirunechchuram is the original name of Kalugumalai, then perhaps the stone pillars were set up to support a portico or mandapa that sheltered the reliefs. In the stone cliff above Groups 2, 3 and 5, there is a long incision in the rock combined with individual square holes that may have been carved for such a purpose.
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