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JAINA ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE OF TAMILNADU
have been built by this Virpori regiment and it was named after Virpori. This Virpori regiment might be the same regiment, ulmunaiyar mentioned in the Pulankurichchi inscription along with the Aththigosathar. So the terms Virpori and ulmunaiyar occuring in both the inscriptions may be taken for the regiments with weapons of archery.
Tirukogarnam
An inscription of 13th century A.D. has been found on the base of the Mangalanayaki (Parvati) shrine in the Gokenesvara temple at Tirukogarnam, Pudukkottai district." Like the previous inscription it also records some land grant to the temple. While registering the boundaries it also mentions the pallichandam land as one of the boundaries of the gifted land to the Sivabrahmanas of the temple. This pallichandam land should have belonged to the Jaina temple at Sadaiyarpparai on the outskirts of Tirukogarnam. During the 13th century A.D. this Jaina temple was known as Perunarkilli Cholapperumpalli to which some lands were also donated in the year 1217 A.D.18 Though the temple is completely ruined the principal image of Tirthankara is still under worship by the local people mistaking it as folk deity.
From the above, it is clear that from the 3rd or 2nd century B.C. to 13th and 14th centuries A.D. there was a continuous occupancy of Jainism all over Tamilnadu, which was very active in those days. Jaina faith was patronised by the royal people, chieftains, officials, merchants, merchant-guards, devaradiyars - male and female irrespectively also of other faiths.
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