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SITTANNAVĀSAL
35
Mahendravarman I, and points to a decadence in sculpturing and architecture. Viewed froin the point of usefulness, these paintings should certainly be welcomed and this practice has spread to Hindu temples also. Even a non-Jaina is so impressed with the various incidents illustrated in these that he seldom forgets them or fails to identify them again. They form as it were visualized books of Jaina Mythology and iconography presenting their details in an easy and interesting manner. The idea underlying this practice, as explained to me by one of the painters at Trichinopoly who was then working in the Mälybhūtesvara temple, is economy. This work is cheaper than that of stone carving, which is much more laborious. And the paintings, I was given to understand, were to be renewed if the colours faded. Failure to renew them has resulted in the fading and disappearance of many at Tiruparuttikunram which has encouraged us to place them on record before they gel completely lost.*
16. SITTANNAVASAL
Examples of South Indian Jaina painting are many, dating from early times such as the 7th century A.D. down to modern times. The most important as well as the mosť interesting from the artistic stand point are the fresco-paintings on the ceiling of the Jaina cave temple at Sittannavāsal, dating from the 7th century A.D. and assigned to the Pallava king Mahendravarman I
The rock-cut temple here is identical with that at Māmaņdūr. As it has not been figured yet in works of Pallava architecture I attempt to give here a description of its architecture which is
Tiruparuttikunram and its Temples by T. N. Ramachandran Published by the Madras Museum. 1934; plates VI-XXX.
