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P
ICS
9.
Gleanings
A Temple Lost in Time
Arun
Tirthankara
Carvings in shallow relief of Jain Tirthankaras and Hindu deities in a stone temple atop the 300-metre Tiruchcharanathu Hill in Kanyakumari district testify eloquently to the pleasing harmony between India's two major religions. According to inscriptions incised in the living rock, skilled Jain artisans moved into the 7th and 8th centuries and transformed a natural cave, formed by a huge rock overhanging another, into a three chambered temple,
The hill, now called Chitral, owes its original name to Jainism for Tiruchcharanatbu means 'hill holy to the cãraņas', a reference to certain sect of Jain ascetics. The middle and left chambers of the temple
ontain carvings of the Jain Saints Mahāvira and Pārsvanatha and the skilled hands of Jain artisans are also credited with the shaping of Nāga idols in the temple. K. P. Devadas, a research scholar at the Kerala language institute, says the temple is one of 13 mentioned in the
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