VILLUPURAM: A team of research scholars and assistant professors from a government arts and science college found some inscriptions near Tindivanam, which supposedly dated back to the Pallava period,
D Ramesh, an assistant professor in the History Department, has been researching the Jain artifacts found in Villupuram. His team, including assistant professor S Sridhar and research scholars A Jeeva and Muthuraman, have been exploring the rock hills at Ananthamanglam near Tindivanam. There, they found the inscriptions and some sculptures. The style of the writing in the inscriptions led them to believe they were from the eighth century. The inscriptions, at an initial glance, read like an order to a servant. Further studies will reveal their entire meaning.
Natural caves in the hills gave people easily accessible space for the sculptures and carvings. One spot yielded four east-facing sculptures and one north-facing sculpture was found in another spot.
“In the past, people including me have found 10th century sculptures in the area. But these inscriptions have turned out to be from the eighth century,” said Ramesh to Express.
The bas-reliefs in this cave start with one of Parvasunathar Tirthankara, depicted standing on a lotus altar with a five-headed snake above his head. A Tirthankara, according to the Jain beliefs, is a God-like teacher of Dharma. This is flanked by a carving of another Tirthankara, and the two are thought to be of 10th century. Sitting on the either sides of the Tirthankara are two chaamaradharis (ones with the hand-held fan), and above them two kanatharar, who are like servants to the Tirthankara. Ramesh thinks that the depictions indicate that the plane might have been a Jain school which flourished in the Pallava period up until the Chola period.