Arittapatti Caves and Shivan Temple, Madurai - My Eyes Of India

Arittapatti Caves and Shivan Temple

Introduction

Arittapatti is a small village located in the Madurai district, it belongs to Melur Taulk. It is additionally called Aritapatti or Pancha Pandava Padukkai from the Mahabharata legends. Arittapatti may be a village set near a rocky hill about 25 kilometers northeast of Madurai. it's one among the oldest known Tamil Brahmi inscriptions, also the oldest known Shaivism-related Lakulisha iconography in Tamil Nadu and Jain monuments.

History of Arittapatti

The above Tamil Brahmi inscription is dated to about the 2nd-century BCE. it's located near the Jain Tirthankara relief with Vatteluttu script inscription. Since this rounded script emerged and came into use in and after the 6th-century, the Tirthankara relief was likely carved into the rock about 800 or 900 years later. 

This, alongside the 7th-century rock-cut Shiva temple on the western side of same rocky hills within the same village (but an extended walk), attests to the utilization of this site in ancient Tamil lands for hundreds of years.

Arittapatti Caves and Hill Rocks

The hillock which seems like a pack of rocks is steeped in 2300 years old history. On one side of Capitol Hill are natural Jain caves called Pandava Padukkai and on the opposite side, a rock-cut Siva temple.

Pandava Padukkai possesses nothing to try to to with the Pandavas of Mahabharatham. Yet people assume the stone beds may need to be employed by Pandavas during their exile. These are literally the beds employed by Jain saints.

Shiva temple

The Siva temple may be a fine example of the first Pandya rock-cut temple architecture. This easy but beautiful edifice, which belongs to the 7th-8th century CE, features a garbhagriha and a front mandapa. Now the local people call this temple as Idaichchi mandapam. 

The Siva linga of this temple has been chiseled within the center of an equivalent rock. The bas-relief sculptures of the Vinayaka and Siva as Lagulisa adorn the 2 niches of the outside wall of the front Mandapa. This is often one of the rare Lagulisa sculptures found in Tamil Nadu.

The Jain temple in Keelakuyilkudi

An 8 feet high Theerthangarar figure with an inscription at its foot is seen at the cave referred to as within the southern a part of the hillock.

(Jain scriptures define the term Tirthankara as follows: the contrivance which help to cross the good ocean of worldly life is named Tirtha and therefore the one that makes that tirtha is understood as Tirthankara )

The most beautiful bas-relief of the Tirthankara in Madurai ( if not in Tamil Nadu ). A Jain temple prospered here from the 1st century to the 10th century with a sizable amount of scholars. It remained a worship place for Jains during the 8th century.

On the hill’s terrace, the Tamil-Brahmi script is written on a boulder. The script is engraved on it during which a drip-ledge has been cut and beds excavated on the rock floor for the Jain monks to rest. Also, Theerthangarar figures are seen near the spring at the cave at the highest of the hillock.

The Central Archaeological department preserves this hill. Archaeologists consider that when a Theerthangarar temple should are present at the highest of this hillock. Kings, landlords, and village heads had supported this Jain temple. within the southern a part of the hillock. Inside the cave, there are 3 Theerthangarar and a couple of Iyyakki Bas -relief figures.

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