2011 Flashback - A Course in Jainism in Thirumalai

Early this year I did a short course in Jainism and the legacy of Tamil Jains , conducted by Dr. R .Venkatraman, Retd Professor of Art History, Madurai Kamaraja University and the Hayagriva study circle in Madras. And we visited a few ancient Jaina sites in and around Chennai in Tamil Nadu - Thirumalai , in Thiruvannamalai district in Tamil Nadu being one of them .

While the main site is referred to as Kundavi Jainalaya, after Raja Raja Chola's sister who patronised it, the ancient  site was filled is cave temples, paintings, monoliths,  temples on hillocks and carvings � all probably dated between 10^th� 15^th century, patronized by various dynasties  and rulers.I wrote my column , Inside Story for the Hindu Metro Plus early this year and here is the link .

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Skywatch - climbing up hill on a hot summer day

We were about four hours from Madras(Chennai ) in Thiruvannamalai district in Thirumalai . This is an ancient Jain heritage site and we were here to look for rock caves , cave paintings and old temples of Jains . I will post a detailed article in some time, but I took these pictures as we climbed uphill to see a 18 feet monolith of Neemnatha , the 22nd Teerthankara and a few other temples  . It was noon and the sun was rather merciless  , but the trip was well worth it ..

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