Kanchipuram and the surrounding areas are known as being home to numerous temples and educational institutions. Jainism was once a thriving religion in this city and its suburbs. Thiruparuttikunram, also called Jina Kanchi, close to Kanchipuram, which is situated on the banks of river Vegavati (a tributary of river Cheyyar), had been a Jain stronghold from as early as the Pallava times. The earliest reference to this place is found in the Pallankovil copper-plate inscription (datable to 550 CE), belonging to King Simhavarman Pallava who ruled from his capital Kanchipuram. It provides important and interesting information about the Jain settlement in Thiruparuttikunram, which had a Jain monastery named Nandisangha. Simhavarman gave the village of Sramanashrama to Vajranandi, a great Jain teacher who lived here. Inscriptions of later times reveal that many other Jain preceptors taught at Thirupatuttikunram.
There are two Jain temples in Thiruparuttikunram. The bigger temple enshrines Vardhamana Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara. This temple is a treasure-trove of ancient architecture, iconography, and epigraphy. The Vardhamana temple, also called the Trailokyanatha temple, is a large one in which images of many Jain Tirthankaras are worshipped. It dates back to the Pallava times, though vestiges of Pallava architecture or sculpture are not seen today. It was enlarged in the subsequent Chola and Vijayanagara epochs.
The main deity Vardhamana, is worshipped in the principal sanctum which is apsidal shaped. On either side of this sanctum are two more shrines dedicated to Pushpadanta, the ninth Tirthankara and Dharmadevi, also known as Ambika, the Yakshi of Neminatha, the twenty-second Tirthankara. The sanctum of Pushpadanta is also apsidal in shape, but smaller than the main shrine for Vardhamana. The shrine of Dharmadevi is small in size and square in design.
An important feature of this temple is the sangita mandapa, the ceiling of which is completely covered with paintings which showcase the lives of three of the twenty-four Jain Tirthankaras. This structure, according to an inscription, was constructed at the behest of Irugappa, an army general and minister of the Vijayanagara ruler, Bukka Raya II in 1387-88 CE at the request of his acharya, Pushpasena. This officer also gave donations for paving the floor of this mandapa with granite.
Numerous important epigraphs have been discovered in this temple, beginning from the Chola age. They belong to the reigns of Kulottunga I, Vikrama Chola, Kulottunga II and Rajaraja III. The earliest epigraph belongs to the time of Kulottunga Chola I and is dated 1116 CE. There are also a few epigraphs of the Vijayanagra epoch belonging to the reigns of Bukka I, Vira Narasimha (the elder brother of Krishnadeva Raya), and also Krishnadeva Raya.