This bas-relief at Kazhugumalai has three rows of Jaina Tirthankaras seated on lotus pedestals.
WE were completely unprepared for what awaited us as A. Gangadurai, the caretaker, opened the locks of the single gate near a barbed wire fence and led us down a flight of narrow steps hewn out of a hill at Kazhugumalai.
On the rock surface, frozen in time, was a superbly sculpted Jaina Tirthankara seated in the ardhapariyankasana pose on a lion pedestal, with a triple umbrella above his head. Around the enlightened one were celestial maidens, dancing inside coils of creepers or playing the flute or a percussion instrument. Their merry abandon signified the occasion of his attaining kevalagnana, or enlightenment. On either side was a chowrie (flywhisk)-bearer. Below them, two devotees stood with flowers in their hands.
The sculpted panel also had two fish-headed makaras, with a warrior coming forth from the mouth of each. Other warriors, on horseback, were there to see the great soul attain enlightenment. On top were the carvings of Surya and Chandra, and Indra on his elephant Airavatham. Below this bas-relief was an inscription in Tamil vatteluttu (a rounded script).
Every image in this sculpture is rich in details. "Every figure is richly carved while the Tirthankara himself looks so plain. This is a sculpture of unsurpassed beauty," said V. Vedachalam, retired Senior Epigraphist, Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology, whose forte is the study of Jaina sites in the State. With the ease of an expert, he read the vatteluttu inscriptions below the bas-reliefs.
Kazhugumalai in Tamil means a hill inhabited by eagles. A small town in Thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu, it is about 100 kilometres from Madurai and 25 km from Kovilpatti.
The name Kazhugumalai is of relatively recent origin about 200 years old. The original name was Ilanelchuram, meaning area full of fertile paddy fields. It was also called Araimalai or Tirumalai.
In this bas-relief, Tirthankara Parsvanatha is shown with snake hoods over his head. The yaksha Dharnendra is seen protecting him, and Kamdan, who tried to kill him by throwing a huge piece of rock at him, is seen as surrendering. Yakshi Padmavathi is also depicted in the sculpture.
The hilltop offers a breathtaking view of paddy fields interspersed with palmyra trees. There are ponds on either side of the hill. A church spire jabs the sky on one side and around the church is the small town.
Vedachalam explained: "Kazhugumalai was an active centre of Jaina learning for 300 years from the 8th century A.D. It was a place of worship, a monastery and a college. Jains from Tirucharanam and Kottaru [both in present-day Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu] came to Kazhugumalai to teach and learn. There were women teachers also here."
The male teacher was called "kuravar" and the female teacher "kurathi". The inscriptions here give the names of a number of kurathis.
"Monks were also called Battarar," said T. Arun Raj, Deputy Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India (Chennai Circle). "Nuns called kurathis came to Kazhugumalai from different Jaina centres such as Tirunarungkondai, Tirucharanam, Tirukottaru and Tirumalai [near Vellore] in the Tamil country." Treasure trove
Kazhugumalai is a treasure trove of indescribably beautiful Jaina sculptures. An amazing sight confronted us as we clambered up the hill. On a long rock surface were three rows of bas-reliefs of Tirthankaras, all seated in pedestals made of two rows of lotus flowers. Blossomed lotuses formed the upper row while inverted lotuses formed the lower row.
At an Ayyanar temple, hidden inside the sanctum sanctorum, are these sculptures of Tirthankaras seated in ardhapariyankasana. The temple, which came up about 100 years ago, obscures some of the bas-reliefs.
R. Champakalakshmi, former Professor of History at Jawaharlal Nehru rock-cut and structural temples: the changing context of Jain religious tradition in Tamil Nadu", calls the three rows of Tirthankaras "a unique group of the 24 of three kalas, or ages, i.e., Trikala Caturvimsati Tirthankaras ." The essay has been published in Airavati, a felicitation volume brought out by Varalaaru.com in honour of the epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan in August 2008.
A few hundred metres from the rock surface is Vettuvan Kovil, a monolithic temple hewn out of a hill. The late C. Sivaramamurti, who was the Director of the National Museum in New Delhi, in his book Kalugumalai and Early Pandyan Rock-cut Shrines, describes it as "by far the most beautiful rock-cut temple of the Pandya period a half-finished free-standing monolith which recalls the famous temple of Siva at Ellora". The Jaina sites at Kazhugumalai and Vettuvan Kovil are under the State Department of Archaeology.
Apart from Vedachalam's articles in the Kalvettu magazine published by the State Department of Archaeology, Kazhugumalai finds considerable mention in the work of scholars such as Champakalakshmi, A. Ekambaranathan (Professor, Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Madras, and author of a book in Tamil on Kazhugumalai) and S.M. Ganapathi (retired Curator, Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology and author of a book in Tamil titled Kazhugumalai, Vettuvan Kovil). Jaina settlements
Jaina settlements came into being in the Tamil country around Madurai in the 3rd century B.C. with the arrival of monks from the north. Pandya kings and merchant guilds patronised these monks.
In the 7th century A.D., with the rise of the Bhakti Movement led by Saivite saints such as Tirunavukkarasar and Tirugnanasambandar, Jainism suffered a setback in the region. It also lost royal patronage with the Pandya king Kun Pandyan and the Pallava ruler Mahendravarman embracing Saivism.
In this bas-relief, celestial beings visit a Tirthankara attaining enlightenment.
However, there was a revival of Jainism in the Tamil country after the natural caverns, it became a theistic religion, absorbing rituals on the way. Several structural Jaina temples came up during this time.
There were more than 100 Jaina sites in the Pandya country (comprising the present-day districts of Madurai, Virudhunagar, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanyakumari in southern Tamil Nadu).
The most notable among these were the sites at Madurai, Kazhugumalai, Kurandi (near Aruppukottai) and Nagercoil (Kottaru).