Jain Journal 1989 07

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

Page 11

JAIN JOURNAL
10. Kilavalavu : Kilavalavu is about six miles from Melur. About a mile south west of it is a hill with huge boulders with narrow bases gradually spreading as they rise into spacious tops. The boulder all round is chiselled wherever the slopes run into the concave portions of the rock and shelters below it a number of beds, the pillow lofts of which converge to the base of the boulder and thereby give to the latter the appearance of petals spreading evenly from the stem of a lotus flower. A Brahmi inscription is engraved directly below a chiselled portion of the rock. Similar boulders with numerous beds arranged in a circle round their narrow bases also exist in an adjoining hill and the openings all round are protected by pieces of piled up stone. The concentration of beds may probably indicate a heavy congregation of ascetics within a small radius.
A pious devotee Ilavan by name who was a native of Tondi was responsible for the cutting of stone beds in this monastery.20
Subsequently in the 9th century, one Sankaran-Srivallavan caused an image of a Tirthankara to be cut on a nearby boulder and gave thirty sheep for a perpetual lamp to be lit in front of the image and also made an endowment for daily offerings. Two more images of Tirthankaras had been sculpted on the same rock by a monk Srilokabhanubhatara and a lay devotee Srikatti.21
11. Vikkiramangalam : Vikkiramangalam is a village near Solavandan. Nearby (about a mile away) is the Nagamalai range of hills wherein is a natural cavern facing south. The height of this cavern is not much except its entrance. The floor is rugged and sloping inwards. Narrow stone beds had been cut into the rock on the floor with low depression in two rows of four and eight respectively close to the uneven rocky walls on either side. In some cases a few beds have been partitioned off from each other by their ridges running the whole length of the beds. No pillow lofts are present, but on the pillow side are three Brahmi inscriptions. They contain names of persons such as Antaipikan, Kuviran and Cenkuviran who in all probability were instrumental in carving out the stone beds in the cavern. Of the three, Kuviran was a native of the village Petalai which remains unidentified.22 Cenkuviran appears to be
20 Ibid., 135/1903. 21 SII, Vol. VIII, Nos. 419, 420. 22 ARE, 621-623/1926.