Jaina Archaeological Heritage of Tamilnadu

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

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JAINA TEMPLES 21
Jainas. How it looked like in the 12th century can not be ascertained now as the entire structure had undergone complete change over the years. In the year 1136 A.D., King Vikrama chola made a sarvamanya gift of land in about twenty-five villages to the temple." During the reign of Kulottunga II (1148 A.D.), the entire village Chittamur was donated as dirgamanya to the temple. This temple was rebuilt and enlarged in the 19th century with additional shrines and mandapas and thereby deprived of its original style. However, the remaining lithic records throw significant light on the patronage extended by the members of the Chola family to this temple.
Tirunarungondai - Parsvanatha & Chandranatha temples
Tirunarungondai,
16 kms. north-east of Ulundurpet, is yet another sacred centre of the Jainas, having two temples dedicated to Parsvanatha and Chandraprabha atop the hillock. The mandapa type of Parsvanatha temple, popularly known as Appandainatha temple, was built in the 9th century enshrining a low relief of the Tirthankara carved on the western face of a huge boulder. The figure of Parsva is flanked by two thinkly carved Chamradaris. The structural addition together with the 9th century bas-relief of Parsvanatha came to be known as Melaippalli or western temple.
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Simultaneously, the Chandraprabha temple with a shrine and a front mandapa, was built by one Vijayanallulan and it was named Kilaippalli or the eastern temple. It was provided with a stone-paved circumambulatory passage and a pillared cloister during the later Chola period.
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