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MONUMENTS & SCULPTURE 300 B.C. TO A.D. 300
{PAKT II
The short Brāhmi inscriptions, recording the names of the donors or occupants, are found either on the beds themselves or above the drip-ledges on the overhanging rock.
In front of the caverns structural additions were made in the form of thatched roofs supported by pillars. The holes for erecting these pillars are seen to this day on the rock-surface in front of some of the caverns. The caverns are invariably located near springs of water, evidently such spots being chosen due to the easy availability of water from the springs.
At almost all these sites Jaina sculptures were carved at a later date, i.e. seventh-ninth centuries, accompanied by Vatteluttu: inscriptions, giving the names of famous Jaina teachers and occasionally of the donors. These carvings are generally found on the overhanging rock, or at any convenient spot or rock-surface not far from the caverns. This would indicate an almost continuous occupation of these areas by the Jainas up to about the eighth-ninth centuries, when changes were brought about, either due to their abandonment by the Jainas themselves or by their deliberate conversion into Saiva and Vaişņava centres. These changes were no doubt the consequences of the religious conflict that raged between the adherents of Buddhism and Jainism on the one hand and the Brāhmaṇical sects on the other, the latter having been spearheaded by the exponents of the Bhakti cult. It is also significant that throughout this controversy, the Jainas are referred to as belonging to the hills (usually eight in number), most of which are located around Madurai.
The hills around Madurai were perhaps the major strongholds of the Jainas in the Tamil country, for it is in these areas that some of the most flourishing Jaina monasteries subsequently arose. Again it was at Madurai that the Drāvida-sangha of the Jainas was founded by one Vajranandin in circa A.D. 470.
The Jainas must have reached this area as early as the second century B.C. (the date given to the earliest Brāhmi inscription from Mangulam). The route of this movement can be traced from the Karnataka region, through the hills of the Kongu country (Coimbatore area), the region west of Tiruchchirappalli, further south to Pudukkottai and then to the hills of Madurai--a series of hillabodes stretching from Karnataka to the Madurai region. Some of the Jainas appear to have trickled into the northern parts of the Tamil country, as shown
1 Vatteluttu is a cursive script, which evolved out of Brabrol in the southern region. * See below, p. 97, under Muttuppatti (Samanarmalai).
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