The Times Of India
21.07.2014
CHENNAI: Fourteen Jain rock beds dating back to the 5th century AD have been excavated inside three caverns on top of a hill in Vellore district.
 |
Lord Mahavir (Representative image) |
The beds were found on the Bhairavamalai in Latheri on the Vellore-Gudiyattam road when Jeeva Kumar, a Jain priest, was on a study tour in search of abandoned and neglected Jain sites in Tamil Nadu. "It was difficult to climb the hill because the rock steps to the caverns were almost lost over the years. Recently, the locals have built a temple near the caverns. They have also built a flight of 1300 steps for the new temple. Unfortunately, there is no passage to these caverns that house the ancient rock beds," says S Jeeva Kumar, who has excavated a number of Jain sites in various parts of Tamil Nadu.
The hill is situated in a small village called Kukkara Palli and scholars say the word 'palli' has a strong association with Jainism.
"The hill must have been a centre of Jainism in the 5th and 6th century. The ascetics used to call their education centre as 'palli'. As the name shows, the village has strong connections with Jainism," says K Ajithadoss, a Jain scholar.
Out of the two small caverns, one houses four rock beds while the other has only one rock bed. The big cavern, however, houses nine beds. A natural spring is found very near the two small caverns.
"Unlike many rock beds found in the region, these ones have no head-rests. But the portion of head-rest is marked with a line probably to indicate the place to keep the head. This is not seen in other beds found in the region," says Ajithadoss. There was also a pit, normally used for grinding medicinal herbs, near the caverns.
Since the local people don't know the importance of the site, they hardly bother to take care of it. After the construction of the temple near the caverns on top of the hill, those who pass by try to vandalize the site after entering the ancient caverns. "The rock beds have been facing ruins due to lack of care. The vandals also add their contribution to them. The locals say there was a rock statue near the caverns. It may be one of the Jain Tirthankaras. But we couldn't find it," says Jeeva Kumar.
Even though there are a number of Jain sites excavated by heritage enthusiasts and scholars in the state, they are not being taken seriously either by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) or the state-owned department of archaeology.
"We are planning to inform the state archaeology department about the new finding. We don't know how it's going to help. We had informed them about our earlier findings, but nobody has taken any interest in it," laments.