HwaNormanby23 at 21:48, 30 April 2026

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{{Short description|Jain temple in Tamil Nadu, India}}
{{use dmy dates|date=February 2016}}
{{use Indian English|date=February 2016}}
{{Infobox religious building
| name = Kalugumalai Jain Beds
| religious_affiliation = [[Jainism]]
| image = Kazhugumalai Jain beds (8).jpg
| image_upright = 1.2
| alt = Kalugumalai Jain Beds
| caption = Kalugumalai Jain Beds
| map_type = India Tamil Nadu
| map_caption = Location in [[Tamil Nadu]]
| map_size = 200
| coordinates = {{coord|9|09|02|N|77|42|15|E|region:IN|display=inline,title}}
| location = [[Kalugumalai]], [[Thoothukudi district|Thoothukudi]], [[Tamil Nadu]]
| materials = Rock cut
| website = {{url|kalugumalaitemple.tnhrce.in/}}
| established = 8th century
| creator = King Parantaka Nedunjadaiya
| architecture_style = [[Pandyan dynasty|Pandyan]]
}}
'''Kalugumalai Jain beds''' in [[Kalugumalai]], a panchayat town in [[Thoothukudi district]] in the South Indian state of [[Tamil Nadu]], are dedicated to the Jain religious figures. Constructed in rock cut architecture, the unfinished temple is believed to have been built during the reign of [[Pandya]]n king [[Jatila Parantaka Nedunjadayan|Parantaka Nedunjadaiya]] (768-800 CE). The rock-cut architecture at Kalugumalai is an exemplary specimen of [[Pandyan art and architecture|Pandyan art]]. The other portions of Kalugumalai houses the 8th century unfinished Shiva temple, [[Vettuvan Koil]] and [[Kalugasalamoorthy Temple]], a [[Murugan]] temple at the foothills.

There are approximately 150 niches in the bed, that includes images of [[Gomateshwara]], [[Parshvanatha]] and other [[Tirthankaras]] of the [[Jainism]]. The Jain beds are maintained and administered by Department of Archaeology of the [[Government of Tamil Nadu]] as a protected monument.

==History==
{{Multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
|align=left
| total_width = 350
| width1 = 3000| height1 = 4000
| width2 = 3000| height2 = 4000
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|image1=Solitary Jina Kalugumalai.jpg
|image2=Pārśvanātha-Kalugumalai.JPG
|footer= [[Mahavira]] and [[Parshvanatha]], in two of the niches
| footer_align = center
}}
The earliest Kalugumalai Jain Beds are dated to the 8th century based on palaeographic and literary evidence, during the reign of [[Pandya]] king Parantaka Nedunjadaiya (768-800 CE).<ref name=official>{{cite web|title=Sthala Varalaru|url=http://www.kalugumalaitemple.tnhrce.in/kalakumalai_history.html|publisher= Hindu Religious and Endowment Board, [[Government of Tamil Nadu]]|year=2015|access-date=4 November 2015}}</ref>

According to [[Paul Dundas]] – a scholar on Jainism studies and Sanskrit, the Kalugumalai is one of the oldest Jain sites in South India. He dates the earliest excavations and inscriptions to about 8th-century CE. All reliefs and inscriptions at Kalugumalai were complete by the late 1st-millennium, while Jainism thrived in this region till about the 14th-century.{{Sfn|p=125–6|Dundas|2003}} Like other South Indian Jain historic sites, this was also a [[Digambara]] tradition site. However, states Dundas, the word ''Kalugumalai'' means "Vulture peak" reminiscent of the legendary site in north India attributed to the Buddha for his sermons.{{Sfn|p=125–6|Dundas|2003}} The local traditions connect the history of this stone hillock with early but extinct Buddhism. Perhaps, the hillock was once related to Buddhism, was abandoned and later Jains and Hindus reused the site for their own monasteries and temples.{{Sfn|p=125–6|Dundas|2003}} Around the Jain beds hillock are several old Hindu temples from the [[Pandya dynasty|early Pandya]] era who also sponsored the Jain beds. These include one for Shiva, one for Murugan, and another for Aiyanar. In the local tradition, states Dundas, the Hindu god Aiyanar is believed to be the guardian deity for Jain temples. During modern times, some Digambara monks attempted replacing the idol of Murugan in the lower cave temple with that of [[Mahavira]], leading to religious disturbances.{{Sfn|p=125–6|Dundas|2003}}

[[File:Ambikā.jpg|thumb|170px|[[Ambika (Jainism)|Jain Yakshini Ambika]]]]
There are 98 inscriptions related to Jainism at the Kalugumalai Jain Beds site, the largest known concentration of Jain inscriptions in far south India at a single site.<ref name=cort1998b>{{cite book|title=Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History|section=Open boundaries|last=Orr|editor1-last=Cort|editor1-first=John E.|publisher=SUNY Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E88RC8Eox2YC|pages=191–192|isbn=9780791437858|year=1998}}</ref> These are found below the reliefs of Tirthankaras and yakshis, as well as near the hollowed out beds. Most are records of donors and gifts.<ref name=cort1998b/> Some contain information and names of mendicants, both men and women. Of the 98, 21 inscriptions (20%) in Kalugumalai mention women mendicants. This is in contrast to 8th to 13th-century Jain inscriptions found elsewhere in Tamil Nadu, where the mention of women is relatively rare to a few (0 to 4%).<ref name=cort1998b/> According to [[John E. Cort|John Cort]] – a Jain studies scholar, Kalugumalai is an important Jain site in part because it stands out as an exception where Digambara tradition women rose to prominence over its early history.<ref name=cort1998/> The Digambara tradition teaches rejection of all possessiveness including clothes, which leads to its mendicants living, socially interacting and traveling in complete nudity. Historic evidence of major groups of Digambara Jain women mendicants is rare, except in Kalugumalai where the local culture allowed female monastic traditions to flourish for few centuries after around the 9th, before it disappeared.<ref name=cort1998/>

The inscriptions in Kalugumalai in combination with inscriptions found elsewhere in Tamil Nadu suggest that for these few centuries, the Tamil culture accepted and supported the female Digambara mendicants well beyond the Kalugumalai area. The female mendicants were not localized, and they traveled and preached far from Kalugumalai.<ref name=cort1998/> This phenomenon was not unique to Jainism, states Cort, but in parallel to Hindu women mendicants who are also named in numerous religious inscriptions found in South India in a manner similar to the Kalugumalai Jain beds.<ref name=cort1998/> However, adds Cort, the evidence suggests that female mendicants in the Hindu tradition were more regional while the female Jain mendicants traveled to more distant territories.<ref name=cort1998/> The Kalugumalai Jain beds mention twenty one religious places where Digamabara women mendicants travelled, out of which eleven have been tentatively identified - one being Kalugumalai itself, five in [[Ramanathapuram district]], one in Tirupanthuruthi in [[Kanchipuram district]], four in Tirucaranam (now Chitaral) in [[Kanyakumari district]].<ref name=cort1998>{{cite book|title=Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History|section=Open boundaries|last=Orr|editor1-last=Cort|editor1-first=John E.|publisher=SUNY Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E88RC8Eox2YC|pages=197–199|isbn=9780791437858|year=1998}}</ref>

According to B.S. Chandrababu, the inscriptions on these Jain beds imply that Jains promoted education in what is now Kanyakumari district between 7th and 9th-century CE. The inscriptions also attest to a Jaina university for women at Thirusaaranath hillock, states Chandrababu.<ref>{{cite book|title=History of People and Their Environs: Essays in Honour of Prof. |last=B.S.|first=Chandrababu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=crxUQR_qBXYC&pg=PA70|page=70|publisher=Bharathi Puthakalayam|year=2011|isbn=9789380325910}}</ref>

==Architecture==
{{Multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
|align=left
| total_width = 350
| width1 = 5184| height1 = 3456
| width2 = 5184| height2 = 3456
|direction=horizontal
|image2=Kazhugachalamurthi temple (6).jpg
|footer= [[Vettuvan Koil]] and [[Kalugasalamoorthy Temple]], both in Kalugumalai, in the same hill
| footer_align = center
|image1=Vettuvan Kovil (3).jpg
}}

The Jain beds site is in [[Kalugumalai]], a rocky hill in [[Thoothukudi district]] in southern [[Tamil Nadu]]. The sculptures and the carvings are indicative of Pandyan art during the period.<ref name=official/> The granite rock looks like a blooming lotus, with hills surrounding it on three sides.<ref>{{cite news|title=Kazhugumalai deserves universal recognition|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/kazhugumalai-deserves-universal-recognition/article3740232.ece|work=The Hindu|date=8 August 2012|location=Tuticorin|access-date=4 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=பல்நோக்குப் பார்வையில் முருகத் தத்துவம் II: Proceedings of the International Conference on Murugabhakthi 2014|publisher=Thirumurugan Thiruvakku Thirupeedam|year=2014|editor1-last=Virupa|editor1-first=Kumaresan|page=1047}}</ref>

There are approximately 150 niches in the bed, that includes images of [[Gomateshwara]], [[Parshvanatha]] and other [[Tirthankaras]] of the [[Jainism]].<ref name=official/>

==Protection and tourism==
Kalugumalai Jain beds is maintained and administered by Department of Archaeology of the [[Government of Tamil Nadu]] as a protected monument.<ref>{{cite web|title=Protected Monuments under the control of the Department |url=http://www.tnarch.gov.in/cons/monument-list.htm#TUTICORIN_DISTRICT-_(4)|publisher=Department of Archaeology, [[Government of Tamil Nadu]]|year=2011|access-date=4 November 2015}}</ref> Kalugumalai was chosen in the plan to be included as a rural tourism site in Incredible India campaign by the Tourism Ministry of the [[Government of India]].<ref>{{cite news|title=14 more rural tourism sites to be ready|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1486464911.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409234949/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1486464911.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 April 2016|publisher=Hindustan Times|location=New Delhi, India|date=29 May 2008|access-date=4 November 2015 }}</ref>

As a part of the campaign the ministry allocated {{INR}}10 million to develop the infrastructure around the region in 2008. The tourist inflow to the town increased to 3,000 persons per month during 2009 from 400 per month during the previous years.<ref>{{cite news|title=Tourism shoots up in picturesque Tamil temple town|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1620483881.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018231131/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1620483881.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 October 2016|publisher=Hindustan Times|location=New Delhi, India|date=1 January 2009|access-date=4 November 2015 }}</ref>

[[File:Jaina abode Kalugumalai.JPG|thumb|center|1000px|Jaina abode Kalugumalai]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Gommaṭeśvara.JPG|Gommaṭeśvara
File:Kalugumalai Temple 20.jpg|Jain reliefs
File:Kazhugumalai Jain beds (5).jpg|Jain reliefs
File:Kazhugumalai Jain beds (3).jpg|Jain reliefs
File:Kazhugumalai Jain beds (14).jpg|Jain reliefs
File:Kazhugumalai Jain beds (13).jpg|Jain reliefs
File:Kazhugumalai Jain beds (12).jpg|Jain reliefs
File:Kazhugumalai Jain beds (10).jpg|Jain reliefs
</gallery>

==See also==
{{commons category}}
* [[Jainism in Tamil Nadu]]
* [[Bommalagutta]]

==References==
=== Citation ===
{{reflist}}

=== Sources ===
* {{cite book|title=The Jains|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X8iAAgAAQBAJ|publisher=Routledge|last=Dundas|first=Paul|year=2003|isbn=9781134501656}}

{{Pandya dynasty}}
{{Jain Caves in India}}
{{Jain history}}
{{Jain temples}}
{{Jainism topics}}

[[Category:Jain rock-cut architecture]]
[[Category:Jain temples in Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:8th-century Jain temples]]
[[Category:Architecture of Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:Pandya dynasty]]
[[Category:Pandyan Empire]]
[[Category:Pandyan architecture]]

Kalugumalai Jain Beds - Revision history

HwaNormanby23 at 21:48, 30 April 2026