Jaina Shrines In India

Author(s): O P Tandon
Publisher: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Vovernment of India

Page 50

Dispersal of Shrines
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the rith Century represent the later art of Chittoor. Where no inscriptions have the Hoyasalas.
been found, the patronage is difficult to
ascertain. The medium of construction of early cave temples of the south being stones, The structural stone temples in Tamil granite and charnokite, the early rock- Nadu belonging to the Jaina fold abound in temples belonging to any faith are of mode- Pallava examples, for instance the Chandrarate dimension. Specimens of such temples prabha temple at Jinakanchi, which is a occur in the Madurai taluk at Anamalai, suburb of Kanchipuram. It is still a wellBrattapatti, Sittanavasal, Mankulam, Mut- known centre of Jaina faith. The Chandratupatti, Turuppatankunram, Varichchiyur. natha temple at Vijayamangalam in Similar caves occur in the Melur and Coimbatore district is a Ganga construction Nilakkoottai taluks.
with its usual brick work vimana facing
GRĀSA PATTI KEVĀLA ANTARA-PATRA KARŅA
JĀDYA-KUMBHA
BHITTI
BHITTI
BHITTI
PITHA
In the districts Ramanathapuram, Ti- runelveli and Tiruchchirapalli, Jaina foun- dations which were later converted into Saiva and Vaishnava shrines are overwhel- mingly found, the most prominent of which are decidedly the Sittanavasal (2nd-Ist centuries B.C. to 9th century A.D.) rock- caves, Jaina images of the 7th-9th centuries occur on the overhanging spur of the cavern of Ammachatram hill. The other impor- tant Jaina foundations lie in the districts of Coimbatore, north Arcot, south Arcot and
south and the ardha mahamandapa. South of Tondaimandalam, both in the Chola and Pandya regions, there once existed a series of Jaina temples in stone which are inferred from their dilapidated existence and epigraphical references. This group of temples reveal important architectural patterns at Chettipatti in PundukkottaiTiruchirapalli with its characteristic prakara and gopuram. It was in the time of Jajaraja I Chole (985-1014 A.D.) that a series of Jaina shrines had sprung up about which
the overhanil. The otheistricts of
Jajahaina shrines 5