Jaina Archaeological Heritage of Tamilnadu

Author(s): A Ekambarnathan
Publisher: Bharat Varshiya Digambar Jain Mahasabha

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JAINA ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE OF TAMILNADU
of the same name. On this range between Alagarmalai and Kidaripatti is a huge cavern with beds. The way to the cavern appears to have been of a precipitous rock with narrow steps. A spacious vault measuring 56 ft in length north to south, 20 feet in depth and 5'10" in height encompasses the remaining part of the cavern. A little higher up the brow of the sheltering boulder are the inscriptions engraved at an inaccessible height. There are totally 13 Tamil Brahmi inscriptions, the largest number found in a single site and can be assigned to circa 1st century B.C. The stone beds are many and are of varying sizes scattered singly and in groups over the whole surface of the cavern. The biggest measures 8'7" by 3'1", while the smallest is 6'4" by 2' 14". Neither are they cut deep into the rock nor the pillow lofts appreciably raised. There are holes for wooden posts by the side of the narrow steps. The Brahmi inscriptions reveal the names of the different craft persons. A little below the cavern containing the stone beds is a huge boulder with the beautiful image of a seated Tirthankara and a Vatteluttu inscription of the 9th century A.D. which records the work of having carved this sacred image was that of the Jaina preceptor Ajjjanandi.“
Tiruparankunram
Six rock cut beds are chiseled out on the western slope of the cavern on the Tiruparankunram hill, about 11 kms from Madurai. Of these, four are small ones roughly equal in size and two slightly bigger. The latter lie spreading east to west and are mutilated on their pillow sides. The four smaller ones are cut by the side of the other and are separated only by a very thin band of stone. They are too narrow even for a medium