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120 JAINA ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE OF TAMILNADU
of Vidal. Vidal was also known as Madevi Arandimangalam. In this hermitage there lived 900 hundred nuns! This information is gleaned from the inscription of the chola ruler Aditya I assigned to the second half of 9th cent. A.D.
Vilappakkam, a village near Arcot, has a distinction of hosting a Jaina Nunnery in the reign of Chola King Paranthaka I. An epigraph dated 945A.D. reveals the sinking of a well at Vilappakkam by Pattini Kurati Adigal. This well and a house were afterwards constituted into a nunnery. She was a disciple of Aristanemi Bhatarar of Thiruppanmalai.
An inscribed slab with the image of a nun is found at Olakkur near Tindivanam of Villupuram district. The inscription is of the 8th cent. characters. It reveals the name of the nun as PRIDIVI-VIDANGA KURATTI. She is flanked by a lamp and canopied by an umbrella. She should have been held in high esteem and therefore the king himself had caused to be made her image.
Kalugumalai hill, in the village of the same name near Kovilpatti, with a hundred of Jina images is "the imperishable gallery of art" and "stands as a unique monument of Jaina culture in South India. There are also a number of inscriptions associated with these sculptures. They are label inscriptions and reveal the name of the person or persons who were responsible for the particular images to be carved on the rock. The donors were the Adroit preceptors, male and female, lay followers: men and women, of agricultural and mercantile communities."
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Interestingly, names of many lady preceptors also occur in these epigraphs. They all hailed from different places in Tamilnadu. In the records mention is made
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