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GENERAL
natural caverns which have now been partitioned by brick-walls and are being
used by some local mendicants as their habitations. In their general appearance
they bear strong resemblance to the rock caverns of Madura from which Brāhmī
inscriptions of about the 2nd century B.C. have been copied in previous years, testifying to their having served as winter resorts of the Jaina and Bauddha monks of
those times. If the caverns at Tirukkaḷākkuḍi can be divested of their modern additions, it is possible that we may discover the usual rock-hewn stone beds probably
with inscriptions in early Brāhmī script. A stray seated image of a god,
attributable to the 12th century A. D., with his two hands in abhaya and varada pose and canopied by a five-hooded serpent, which was found in the compound
of the Śiva temple on the hill bears a close resemblance to the Nāgarāja image
(in standing pose) in the Jaina temple at Nagerkoil figured in Travancore
Archaeological Series, Vol. II, Plate VIII, and lends support to the view that
Jainism might have persisted in this place for a considerable time after it was
replaced by Śaivism.
Sculptures of Agastya and Pulastya.
The rock-cut Kakōḷanātha temple on the hill contains the usual double verandah in front of the central shrine on either side of which is a panel bearing in
relief sculptures more than 7 feet high, of
what are popularly known as Agastya and
Pulastya. The former is hidden from view by some modern additions of walls. The
image of Pulastya is represented in a standing pose with the right hand pointing to the central shrine and the left holding a lotus bud. The jaṭā tied up into
a top knot, the hanging ear-lobes and the lower garment tucked up in a particular
style are indicative of an early age for the sculpture. This bears a close resemblance in style to some of the sculptures in the cave temples of the adjacent Pudukkottai State. Whether this figure is an orthodox representation of the sage Pulastya himself or is meant as a portrait sculpture of the excavator of the cave is not
certain. There are also figures of the Saptamāṭris carved in relief on the rock in a
niche outside the temple and a rock-cut image of Gaṇēśa in a niche near a spring.
Caverns with beds in the South Arcot district.
8. In the South Arcot district also several rock caverns resembling those
at Tirukkaḷākkuḍi mentioned above and at other places of the Ramnad and
Tinnevelly districts have been found during
the year. There are however no Brāhmī
or early Tamil inscriptions in any of them to enable us to fix their age. These
also appear to have been associated with Jaina monks like their prototypes in the
south. The hillocks containing these are locally known as Pañchaṇāmpārai (the rock of the Five) which remind us of the Pāṇḍavarpaḍukkai (the bed of the
Pāṇḍavas) in the caverns of the southern districts. Such rocks are found at
Chōḷavāṇḍipuram, Toṭṭi a hamlet of Kīranūr, Sandaippēṭṭai a suburb of
Tirukkōyilūr on the way to Kīranūr, and Oḍḍanandal about 5 miles from
Tiruveṇṇainallūr. The one at Toṭṭi is the most interesting of these. To the
north of the road, in a waste land about a furlong from this hamlet, is a group of
big boulders provided with a flight of steps cut on the rocks on all the four sides
and leading up to the top, where there are three or four series of beds with pillows
of varying sizes and number, cut on the surface of the rocky boulders with overhanging rocks above them. Thus one group consists of five beds in a single row
each measuring about 3’ X 1’, and another, of three beds of the same size while
the third group consists of only two beds. The space between the overhanging
rock and the bed is not more than 3’ high so that one has to creep in to reach the
beds. Two of the beds again are cut in the shape of steps to serve as benches
with backs with a seating capacity for two or three persons abreast. The Pañchaṇāmpārai at Śandaippēṭṭai is a huge rock inside the margin of the lake, the
top of which is reached by a flight of steps cut on its sides. There are two sets
of two beds each on this rock protected by an overhanging boulder. On the western
slope of the rock high above the ground is an inscription of Kulōttuṅga II
(noticed in para. 30 below). About a furlong to the north of the rock known
as Āñjanēyanpārai (because of the figure of Āñjanēya cut in relief thereon) at
Oḍḍanandal is a group of four or five big boulders, one resting upon another in
curious positions, thus affording four recesses in the sides in which again are cut
beds with pillows, Access to the recesses is very difficult. A flight of narrow
steps leads from the middle portion to the top of the loftiest of these boulders
which has a sheer drop of about 50 feet on all its sides to the ground level.
Jaina antiquities at Chōḷavāṇḍipuram.
Choḷavāṇḍipuram seems to have been a place of importance to the Jainas
in the 10th and 11th centuries A.D., as evidenced by the sculptures carved on the
groups of boulders on the hillock called
Aṇḍimalai at this place. An image of
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