Jain Journal 1991 10

SR No.: 520104
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1991
Total Pages: 58
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 13

JAIN JOURNAL
A. The Jaina Cave :
One of the steep hills in the village contains a spacious cavern at an almost inaccessible height. It is locally known as Eladipattam on account of the seven holes cut into the rock, serving as steps to reach the shelter. There are seventeen stone beds cut in rows, containing at one end a raised portion serving as pillow lofts. Among them, the biggest is legibly incised with a Brahmi inscription assignable to a period from about 2nd century B. C, to 2nd century A.D. Some more inscriptions of the 8th century A.D. are found engraved on the nearby beds. The Brāhmi inscription reveals that the stone bed (adhittanam) was caused to be made by one Ilayer of the village Cirupavil for the benefit of the recluse Kavuti Iten who was born at Kumalur (Kumattur) a village in Eruminadu. 1
The places referred to in the record remain unidentified. However, Eruminadu is taken to be the same as Mahisamaņdala or the present Mysore region. If this identification is acceptable, it would bear testimony to the contact between Jaina adherents of Karnataka and Tamilnadu even in the remote past. Kavuti Iten, the presiding monk of the monastic establishment at Sittannavasal, could have come from Karnataka to spread the gospel of the Jina into the South.
The same cavern continued to be the holy abode of Sramaņas' in the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. also. Names of Mendicants such as Tolakunrattu kadavulan, Tirunilan, Tiruppuranam, Tittaicharanan, Sri Purnacandran and Nityakaran Pattakali are engraved on the other stone beds. They were no doubt monks who resolved to spend their lives in isolation at Sittannavasal.
B. The Rock-cut Temple :
The neighbouring hill, not far away from the natural cavern, possesses a rock-cut temple, consisting of a rectangular shrine preceded by a front mandapa. The weight of the roof is borne by two freestanding pillars in the middle and two pilasters in antis. They are simple with a square base and top an octognal middle portion. Their
1 T. V. Mahalingam, Early South Indian Palaeography, pp. 245-250 2 Ibid., p. 247 3 Annual Report on Epigraphy (ARE), 388/1914