SITTANAVASAL CAVE

Description

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Context: With much of the art in Sittanavasal either damaged or vandalised, Archaeological Survey of India has undertaken conservation measures and also introduced digital checks to track public access

Details:

A small village in Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu was a major centre of Jain influence for 1,000 years just before the Christian era.
Sittanavasal is the name used synonymously for the hamlet and the hillock that houses the Arivar Kovil (temple of Arihats - Jains who conquered their senses), 'Ezhadipattam' (a cavern with 17 polished rock beds), megalithic burial sites and the Navachunai tarn (small mountain lake) with a submerged shrine.
Sittanavasal is considered by historians to be one of the oldest inhabited areas in the district, and a major centre of Jain influence.
This is the only place in Tamil Nadu where we can see Pandya paintings.
Sittanavasal’s site and art was first mentioned by local historian S. Radhakrishnan Iyer in his 1916 book General History of Pudukottai State.
The artwork on the ceiling of the sanctum and the ardha mandapam of Arivar Kovil is an early example of post-Ajanta cave paintings of the fourth to sixth centuries, done using the fresco-secco technique (a process that dispenses with preparation of the wall with wet plaster).
The ceiling paintings show ‘bhavyas’ (exalted souls who work to achieve moksha or spiritual liberation) enjoying themselves in a pool, full of blooming lotuses; today much of it is obscured by patchy plastering.
Faint outlines linger of dancing girls on the ‘ ardha mandapam’ pillars.
The pillars of the verandah (added by the Maharaja of Pudukottai at the instance of then Diwan Alexander Tottenham in the 1900s), were brought from Kudumiyanmalai.
The colours are a mixture of plant dyes and mineral elements such as lime, lamp black, and clay pigments such as ochre for yellow and terre verte for the greyish-green tints.
Even though Sittanavasal is a comparatively small archaeological microcosm of Jainism in contrast to those found in Madurai and the Arcot districts, it is thought to be the best preserved example of a Jain cave temple in Tamil Nadu.
Of the 20 cave temples in Pudukottai district, 19 belong to Saivite and Vaishnavite streams of Hinduism; Sittanavasal is the only Jain temple with sculptures.