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CHAPTER 19]
SOUTH INDIA
Påndyas in circa 770. Instances of Jaina centres giving place to Saiva or Vaişpava centres are numerous and have been recognized at Pillaiyarpatti and Kunnakkundi (Ramanathapuram District), Arittapatti (Madurai District), Narttamalai and Kudumiyamalai (Tiruchchirappalli District), Tiruchchirappalli itself, Virasikhamani and Kalugumalai (Tirunelveli District), Dalavanur (South Arcot District) and Siyamangalam and Mamandur (North Arcot District).
It is only at Sittannavasal near Pudukkottai (Tiruchchirappalli District) that Jaina vestiges have remarkably survived such vicissitudes. This is a notable Jaina centre which was in continuous occupation of the Jainas from the second century B.C.' to the ninth century A.D.
The rock-cut Jaina cave-temple at Sittannavasal, called in its inscription Arivar-Kovil of Anpalvāyil (temple of the Arhat at Annavāśal), must have come into existence in the late seventh or early cighth century as can be deduced from the palaeography of a short label-inscription on the northern side of the base of the rock-cut mandapa. It is a typical mandapa-type cave-temple, having an oblong rock-cut mand apa with a facade of two pillars and two pilasters (fig. XI; plate 127A) and a square shrine-cell behind, with a higher floorlevel reached by a short flight of three steps and with a simple door-opening. The shrine-front is, as usual, projected a little into the mand apa. The two endwalls of the mand apa have niches or deva-koșthas sunk into them. The southern niche contains a bas-relief of seated Parsvanātha with a serpent-hood and triple umbrella. A Tamil label-inscription on a pillar near it reads Ulokadittan (Lokāditya) referring to this Pārsvanātha. The northern niche contains a seated relief in dhyāna-pose with single umbrella, and from the Tamil labelinscription on a pillar near it, reading Tiruvāśiriyan (Sri-Acārya), it is to be taken as a representation of an Ācārya. Both the inscriptions are in the script of the ninth century. The walls and ceilings of both the mand apa and cella are finished smooth, and the ceiling of the cella has the brim of a large circular umbrella with the central hub of the ribs cut in relief. On the hind wall is a row of three bas-reliefs, all seated alike in dhyāna. Two of them have triple umbrellas over their heads, indicating them to be Tirthankaras, while the third at one end has only one umbrella, denoting it to be that of an Acārya or Cakravartin. According to an inscription in Tamil verse on the rock-face immediately to the south of the mund apa-façade, belonging to the time
1 For the early Jaina centres of the period between the second century B.c. and third century A.D., see above, chapter 9.
» Annual Report on Indiun Epigraphy, 1960-61, no. 324. • Annual Report on Suuih Indian Epigraphy, 1904, no. 368.
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