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ARMAMALAI PAINTINGS :
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Armamalai is a hillock, situated nearly 2 K.M. from Malayampattu village in Gudiyattam Taluk in North Arcot district. There is a natural cavern on the top of the hillock, used as a hilly resort of the Jaina munis. A mud wall was served or used to avoid natural disturbance. The paintings are found on the mud walls and on the ceiling of the cavern. These Jaina paintings are datable to the 9th century A.D.'. It was reported first by Robert Sewell in 1882 A.D. and summerized by C. Minakshi in 19392. The colours used in these paintings are ochre, green and black. R. Nagasamy considers that the depicted paintings are the ashtadikpalas, the guardian deities of the eight directions. They are not ashtadikpalas as suggested by R. Nahasamy. According to Jaina tradition," there are ten guardian deities (dasadikpalas) producting the eight directions and heaven (upper world) and also the earth (Lower World) The paintings, painted are devided into nine houses. The centre one may represent the heaven, while other eight represent the eight directions. Most of the paintings on the ceilling are damaged. Only two boxes are with the paintings. The south eastern one is Agni, riding on a coar, and the southern one is probably Yama ridding on a baffalo. The paintings found on the mud wall also fully damaged, except the face of the human figure. Probably, he may be represented as a guardian deity of the earth while the wall is represented as the earth.
SITTANNAVASAL
Sittannavasal is a village, situated about 16 K.M. north west of Pudukkottai in the Pudukkottai district in Tamilnadu. It was a flourishing Jaina centre from the early part of the christian era, as evidenced by a Brahmi inscription found on a hillock of the village Sittannavasal. The paintings are found on the ceiling of the garbhagrha, outer mandapa, podikas and kodungai of the pillars of the rock-cut temple at Sittannavasal. Two stages and layers of paintings were noticed in 1942, when Dr. Paramasivam and K.R. Srinivasan were engaged to clean these paintings. The new paintings are superimposed on the old one. As an inscription of 9th century A.D. describes that the rock-cut temple and the ardhamandapa and mukhamandapa were renovated by a teacher of Madurai Ilan-Gaudaman, the later stage of the painting may belong to the 9th century A.D. while the early stage of paintings particularly found on the sculptures, probably were of much earlier period.
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The lotus tank, found on the ceiling is known as one of the dreams of the mother of Mahavira before his birth, according to S.R. Balasubramaniyam?. In this tank, the fishes, elephants, (photo No. 1), baffalo and two men are gathering flowers, (photo Nos. 2 and 3) found on the two opposite sides with
Arhat Vacana, October 2000
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