Jain Journal 1969 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 52

OCTOBER, 1969
95
The Travancore Archaeological Department has officially recorded eleven inscriptions found at this place. The earliest of all records is an inscription from the 9th century A.D. The line "tirunandikkarai bhadarar kudutha bhoomi...” (T.A.S., Volume III, Part II, Page 204) which means that the land assigned to the temple at Tirunandikkarai was donated by the bhadarar, is clear evidence that the land on which the structural monument of the Siva temple stands was obtained from the Jaina monks. The word bhadarar which denotes Jaina monks is found frequently in the inscriptions in Tiruchcharanam and Kalugumalai which happened to be famous Jaina settlements during the period of the 9th century A.D.
The inscriptions on the eastern wall of the rock-cut cave-temple which belongs to the 18th year of the Cola King Rajaraja I record the grants to the temple for the celebration of a festival in Aippasi Satabhisha or Sathyam, the birthday of the King. It was also required that a perpetual flame be kept before the image in the name of the King. This lamp was to be known as Rajaraja Tirunandavilakku.
During this period the cave-temple appears to have passed into the hands of the Hindus. The rock-cut cave-temple hewn by the Jainas was then converted into a Hindu shrine. The Jaina origin of the temple is now so completely forgotten that people believe that this cave-temple was originally a Hindu place of worship.
Kurandi
Kurandi, another place in Kanyakumari, was a centre of activity of Jainism. This place seems to have been the seat of successive Jaina ascetics and their disciples. From the inscriptions found in Kulugumalai and Samanarmalai we find that there was a Jaina monastery (Kettampalli) in Kurandi and the Jaina scholars and their disciples from this place of learning left votive images cut on the rocks in different centres of Jaina domination and preached Jaina Dharma in different corners. (Samanarmalai Inscriptions edited by Mr. M. Venkataramayya).
Judging from these facts we can conclude that Jainism had complete sway over the whole of Kanyakumari district upto the end of the 9th century A.D. When the Saivite cult propagated by Tirugnansambandar reached its zenith and the intelligentsia of the South came under the influence of the Vedantic zeal of Sri Sankaracarya, Jainism began to fade away in our land and many Jaina shrines became Hindu temples. Goaded by their revivalism the Hindu people of different creeds, especially