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are located at the apex of an outcrop of stone that rises some six hundred feet above the town. This outcrop serves as the most significant geological landmark in Kalugumalai and can be seen from a great distance. Today, the town of Kalugumalai is nestled around this landmark and is most known for its eighteenth to nineteenth-century temple-complex dedicated to Murugan. This temple and associated devotional activities have been thoroughly studied by A. Good (2004). The complex (known as Kalugacalamurtti temple) features an excavated interior (carved into the southwestern corner of the hill) with external structural additions. There is some evidence that the cave-shrine itself may have originally been Jain (ib., p. 3). A date for such excavation activities, however, has yet to be determined.
It is significant to note that the rock formations at the top of the hill remain unaltered, with the exception of their surfaces. In fact, one cannot easily separate the natural form of the boulder from its carvings. In other words, the reliefs tend to enhance the natural shapes of the rocks rather than modify them. Though images are incised in horizontal registers, their depth of carving mimics the undulations of the rock's surface (Figure 2). This differs greatly from serial images found on cave walls that are carved at roughly equal depths to heighten the illusion of a structural temple wall. Moreover, the images at Kalugumalai are presented in plain rectangular or square niches rather than the more elaborate architectural framework that is usually carved or painted around the niches of images in medieval Jain caves. The boulders and their carvings at Kalugumalai
Figure 2: Detail of Group 3 at Kalugumalai