Tirumalai

About

Rising northwest of Polur in Tamil Nadu, southeastern India, Tirumalai is a sacred hill that has drawn Jain devotees for more than a millennium. The site takes its name from Tamil words meaning 'the holy mountain,' and later acquired the Sanskrit epithet Arhasugiri, 'the excellent mountain of the Arhat', reflecting the deep reverence in which it has long been held. Three rock-cut caves, two constructed Temples, and a magnificent monolithic sculpture together form a complex of remarkable spiritual and artistic depth.

The centrepiece of the hilltop is the Kunthavai Jinalaya, a Temple that is partly excavated from the living rock and partly built within the cavern's embrace. It houses a monolithic standing image of the Tirthankara Neminatha carved to a height of 16.25 feet (4.95 m), making it the tallest Jain image in Tamil Nadu. The Temple walls are rich in sculpture and bas-relief, and the chamber also preserves footprints memorialising the nirvana of Jain monks. A second Temple to Mahavira was added to the west in the 16th century, and a third, dedicated to Parshvanath, followed in the 17th century.

The painted surfaces of the complex add a further dimension to its sanctity. Added between the 15th and 17th centuries, surviving murals include a striking depiction of Parshvanatha sheltered by a canopy of five serpent hoods, venerated by monks and laity, as well as images of Ambika and Bahubali. A composition showing the Samavasarana, the divine assembly of a Tirthankara, has been compared to the celebrated paintings at Shravanabelagola. The caves are under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India, which continues to care for this layered heritage site.

History

Tradition holds that eight thousand Jain monks who had travelled south with the teacher Bhadrabahu undertook their final penance and attained nirvana on this hill, and the footprints of four revered acharyas, Vrishabhsenacharya, Samantabhadracharya, Varadattacharya Munivar, and Sri Vadeepa Simhasuri, are still preserved at the site. The great cavern at the hill's base was shaped around the 9th century CE and later divided into some thirty chambers; a late 10th century inscription names the hill Vaigai-Tirumalai after Vaigavur, the village at its foot. The Kunthavai Jinalaya, the Temple partly cut from the rock and partly built into the cavern, is said to have been commissioned in the 10th century by the Chola princess Kundavai, and an inscription dated 1024 CE records offerings made here by Rajendra Chola I. Temples to Mahavira and Parshvanatha were added in the 16th and 17th centuries, and murals from that period, including a Parshvanatha sheltered by five serpent hoods and a Samavasarana scene compared to the paintings at Shravanabelagola, survive on the cavern walls.

Significance

This Tirumalai should not be confused with Tirumala near Tirupati, the hill of the Venkateswara Temple in Andhra Pradesh; the two share only a similar-sounding name. This Tirumalai is a Digambara Jain sanctuary in Tiruvannamalai district, its sanctity resting on the monks believed to have found liberation here rather than on any single deity's shrine. The Archaeological Survey of India protects the caves, and the nearby Arahanthgiri Jain Math, established in August 1998, keeps the hill a place of living pilgrimage rather than a silent ruin.

Architecture

Rock-cut and structural Dravidian Jain architecture, partly excavated from the hill and partly built within the cavern, with later structural shrines added in the 16th and 17th centuries