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The biggest cavern containing a short Brahmi inscription datable to the 2nd-Ist centuries B.C. was the monastery presided over by a Muni Ariti who was a native of Elaiyur.18 The occurrence of a series of stone beds at Karungalakkudi would reveal that large number of monks inhabited the caverns even before the advent of the Christian era. Since the same place continued to enjoy religious importance in later times, the great Ācārya Ajjanandi caused to be made an image of a Tirthankara on a boulder in the 9th century A.D.19 In fact, most of the early monasteries around Madurai had been provided with sculptural embellishments in the 9th and 10th centuries AD.
10. Kilavalavu : Kilavalavu is about six miles from Melur. About a mile south west of it is a hill with huge boulders with narrow bases gradually spreading as they rise into spacious tops. The boulder all round is chiselled wherever the slopes run into the concave portions of the rock and shelters below it a number of beds, the pillow lofts of which converge to the base of the boulder and thereby give to the latter the appearance of petals spreading evenly from the stem of a lotus flower. A Brahmi inscription is engraved directly below a chiselled portion of the rock. Similar boulders with numerous beds arranged in a circle round their narrow bases also exist in an adjoining hill and the openings all round are protected by pieces of piled up stone. The concentration of beds may probably indicate a heavy congregation of ascetics within a small radius.
A pious devotee Ilavan by name who was a native of Tondi was responsible for the cutting of stone beds in this monastery.20
Subsequently in the 9th century, one Sankaran-Srivallavan caused an image of a Tirthankara to be cut on a nearby boulder and gave thirty sheep for a perpetual lamp to be lit in front of the image and also made an endowment for daily offerings. Two more images of Tirthankaras had been sculpted on the same rock by a monk Srilokabhanubhatara and a lay devotee Srikatti.21
11. Vikkiramangalam : Vikkiramangalam
is a village near Sola
18 T. V. Mahalingam, Op. cit., pp. 212-213. 19 ARE, 562/1911. 20 Ibid., 135/1903. 21 SII, Vol. VIII, Nos. 419, 420.
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