Buried Heritage

K.T. Gandhirajan, specialist in art history has been trying to trace the history of a beautiful Jain sculpture half buried in a small mound at Pasumpon village in Tamil Nadu’s Ramanathapuram district. [The Hindu]

An interesting aspect was that Muthuramalinga Thevar, Forward Bloc leader, used to lead the villagers in offering worship to the image on Tamil new year day in April every year. The sculpture used to be anointed with oil and bathed with water. The practice stopped after Thevar died in 1963.

Specialists in the study of Jainism and Buddhism including D. Ravikumar, Dalit Panthers of India legislator, and Mr. Gandhirajan said scores of sculptures of the Buddha, Adinatha and Mahavira were lying on fields in different parts of Tamil Nadu and they wanted the Government to protect them.

Pillar Stories

Visited an old Jain temple in Alagramam, near Tindivanam. The pillars at the temple were telling a story of their own..caught a few with my cam ;-))














** was surprised to see a commoner -the pious looking man with folded hands, among the statues - later came to know that he had given away lots as endowment to the temple.

Godly Transformation

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

Chidaral - Thirucharanmalai hillock

Today's RLT (Road Less Travelled) in Hindu, captures the beautiful historical Thirucharanmalai hillock. Chitharal/Chidaral is 55km from Kanyakumari, 36km from Nagercoil

As you go around the wall of rock art, another flight of steps takes you to the imposing ruins of a temple perched right on top of the hill. Most of the deities in the central shrine are believed to be those of the Jain Thirthankaras, namely Parsvanatha and Mahavira.

Was surprised to see a Wiki on these Chitharal Jain Monuments

It is famous for the hillock which has a cave containing rock-cut sculptures of Thirthankaras and attendant deities carved inside and outside dating back to the 9th century A.D. Jain influence in this region was due to the Jain King Mahendra Verman-I (610-640 AD).

But, the RLT, on the face of it seems to be generously inspired from this Hub article