Jaina Archaeological Heritage of Tamilnadu

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

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JAINA ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE OF TAMILNADU
In this process of assimilation, Jainism admitted ritualistic and anthropomorphic worship of Tirthankaras and their attendant deities. Sometimes, prominence was given to the worship of yakshis like Ambika and Padmavati. The early Jaina caves which lost their importance in the wake of bhakti movement began to throb with religious activities in the 8th - 9th centuries and came to possess excellent images of Tirthankaras and yakshis, to which regular ritualistic worship had been performed. Lay devotees began to make endowments in the form of land, gold, sheep etc., for the conduct of daily pujas to these icons and for the upkeep of the monastic establishments. The early abodes of Jaina mendicants, in course of time, thus, got metamorphosised into temples.
Simultaneously, building of temples in urban and semi urban centers was on the increase in the Pallava and Pandya domains. Jaina cave temples at Anaimalai, Arittapatti, Aivaramalai, Uttamapalayam, Kuppalanattam, Kalugumalai, Chitaral etc., in the Pandya region and Anantamangalam, Atchipakkam, Tirumalai, Tondur, Tirunatharkunru, Tirunarungondai, Cholapandipuram, Vallimalai, Valutalangunam etc., in Tondaimandalam were embellished with exquisite sculptures of Tirthankaras and at times with yakshis. Structural temples in places like Tirupparuttikunram, Perumandur, Karantai, Agalur and Kilsattamangalam are also best examples bearing testimony to this new development.
ROCK-CUT SCULPTURES:
In Tondaimandalam, Jaina caves at Karuppankunru, Panchapandavamalai and Tirakkol attained importance in the 8th century A.D. At
Karuppankunru, 24 Kms, north-east of Madurantakam,