Cholas & Deepankudi

Deepankudi is a little hamlet in Thiruvarur dist, Tamilnadu. A new inscription belonging to the later cholas, 11th century has been found there.

The inscription belonging to the period of Rajendra II, is found in a pillar of six ft height in the temple premises which is under renovation. Inscription is engraved in all the four sides of the pillar. It starts with the praising of the King. It registers about donations offered to the presiding deity, Kailasanatha of Siva temple by Arulmozhinangai, sister of Rajendra II and the daughter of Rajendra I. On her behalf, it was inscribed by Aramabanandi, a Jain who belonged to Deepankudi temple. The inscription also records about the donations for offering rice, vegetables and curd rice daily for the presiding deity. The Jain temple of Deepankudi is in worship now.

An inscription found in Sttambur near Chenji in Tamil Nadu speaks about a Jain known as Aramanandi.

Way back in 2005, similar pillars with inscriptions have been found.

Well, another titbit - Deepankudi is the place where Jayamkondar, the author of "Kalingathu Parani" - a massive collection of war poems, was born.

Adichchanallur - History buried

An eye-opener ...Jeyamohan writes abt his journey to Adichchanallur, near Thirunelveli and his meeting with a local elderly person.
Issues raised:
1. Adichchanullur supersedes Indus valley civilization, why no proper research on this - dravidian - aryan conflict?
2. Why there is no museum in this historical place. no indicator what so ever?
3. All excavated items have been moved to many places, and the area is now buried again.
and many more.
The elderly person raises all these issues, cites tamil literature but the surprise is, he is not a learned person but a person who looks after cattle!!

New Jain Sites, rock art - Gingee, Tamilnadu

Over the last three months, two rock art sites, two caverns with Jaina beds, and dolmens have been discovered within a radius of 25 km on the hillocks behind the Gingee fort in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district.

The rock art consists of a painting of a deer done in white kaolin with outlines in red ochre.

“This is really rare,” Mr. Gandhirajan, an explorer who specializes in art history said. While this figure of a deer is about 3 feet by 3 feet in size, there are tiny drawings of deer and lizard (udu mbu in Tamil) on the adjacent rock surface, as if to contra-distinguish their size. He estimated that the paintings might belong to circa 1000 B.C. “These paintings were done by pre-historic men — by hunter-gatherers who used to live in this cavern. Much later, the Jain monks occupied them

More in this Hindu report.

Commendable Effort

For 120 days, they travelled through some of the more remote regions of Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, carrying around 600 kg of equipment.

S. Krishnaswamy of Krishnaswamy Associates and his wife (and producer) Mohana Krishnaswamy have made‘Indian Imprints’, a nine-hour documentary that traces the impact of ancient Indian culture and civilisation on South East Asia, historically.

“We’re not talking about the Mariamman temples built 150 years ago by Chettiars who settled there,” says Krishnaswamy, who has won four National Awards for his short non-fiction films “The temples and monuments we’ve covered go back all the way to an unspecified pre-Christian era, with authentic documentation from the first century A.D. onwards. The monuments offer a fascinating study in cross-cultural pollination such as the Pandava Chandis, temples for the Pandavas and Draupadi dating back to the 8th century in Java, Angkor Wat, the massive 11th century Vishnu temple in Cambodia, or sculptures dedicated to Karaikal Ammaiyar, a 9th century saint from Tamil Nadu scattered all over the region.

More interesting info at The Hindu - Metro Plus

Godly Transformation

The Hindu carried a report on how the statue of Mahavira was transformed into Aadhali Amman in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu

12th century Buddha paintings - Nepal

WOW!! ..Looks amazing....

The Hindu - Art Treasures Found:

"The 12th-century paintings — a large central mural flanked by smaller panels — were found last month in a partly collapsed cave in Mustang, a kingdom long forbidden to foreigners in the high Himalayas, 150 miles north-west of Kathmandu. "Finding the cave was almost like a miracle," said Italian art conservator Luigi Fieni, a member of the team of Italian, American and Nepalese art conservators, conservation architects and archaeologists. They used ice axes to cut their way to the cave, at 3,400 metres. "

The Big Temple

Came across this wonderful site -
www.thebigtemple.com
dedicated to the Thanjavur Big Temple a.k.a Brahadeeswara Temple. Kudos to the team (Ponniyin Selvan Varalatru Peravai - Ponniyin Selvan Historical Society) behind this site.

"From the epigraphical evidence it is known about King Rajaraja-I started building this temple on his 19th year and completed on 275th day of his 25th year. It took just 6 years to complete this work on 1010 A.D."