Sittanavasal Cave
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Sittanavasal Cave (also, Arivar Koil) is a 2nd-century Tamil
The monument is a rock-cut monastery or temple. Created by Tamil Śramaṇa, it is called the Arivar Koil, and is a rock cut cave temple of the Arihants. It contains remnants of notable frescoes from the 7th century. The murals have been painted with vegetable and mineral dyes in black, green, yellow, orange, blue, and white. Paintings have been created by applying colours over a thin wet surface of lime plaster.[3][4][5]
Ancient structures such as
The Sittanavasal Cave are listed as one of the Adarsh Smarak Monument by Archaeological Survey of India.[8]
History
While the Sittanavasal village is dated from 1st century BC to 10th century AD when Jainism flourished here, the Temple-cave was initially dated to
There are two publications in the 20th century which brought to light these monuments in particular: one in 1916, in the book "General History of the Pudukkottai State" by S. Radhakrishna Iyer, a historian, but only known regionally; and the other by Jouveau-Dubreuil and Gopinatha Rao, iconographers who worked together and brought out a "Monograph on Sittannavasal", in 1920, which brought it to limelight among archaeologists worldwide. The cleaning of the painting was undertaken in 1942 by Dr. S. Paramasivan and K. R. Srinivasan when they observed a patch of old painting of conventional carpet design superimposed by a new layer of painting. The superimposed layer of painting has been surmised as that done Ilan-Gautaman, whose name is also inscribed.[3] The temple is maintained and administered by the Archaeological Survey of India as a ticketed monument.[11][12]
Architectural features
Sittanavasal is a rock-cut cave, situated on the western side of central part of a hill, which runs in a north–south direction. The hill measures approximately 70 metres (230 ft) in height, and sits above the surrounding plain which has some archaeological monuments. The Jain natural caverns, called Ezhadippattam are approached from the foothills. The cave is approached by climbing a few 100 steps.[3]
The architectural features of the Sittanvasal Cave include the painting and sculptures found within its precincts.[3][4][13] Archaeological Survey of India is responsible for the maintenance of the cave and the Jain beds.[3]
The paintings have been painted in
The layout of the west facing cave is the same as adopted in other rock-cut cave temples in the country during the 7th Century. As originally built, it had only a
The Ardhamantapam, after the front entrance, is rectangular in plan of 20.5 metres (67 ft) long, 2.28 metres (7 ft 6 in) wide and 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) high, and the cubical cell of2.89 metres (9 ft 6 in) width,
A door way of 5.5 feet (1.7 m) height and 2.5 feet (0.76 m) width from the ardhamantapa leads to the sanctum sanctorum (through a flight of steps), which has three bas-relief sculptures. The entrance has surul-vyalis (balustrades sculptured with the mythical form of
Paintings
The decorative paintings in the ceiling of the sanctum and ardha-mandapam of Aravirkovil though compared to the classical cave painting styles used in the Ajanta Caves but have minor variations in use of the materials for creating the paintings and also reported to provide a link between the Ajanta paintings (4th–6th century AD) and the Chola paintings of 11th century at Thanjavur.[3] The ceilings have depiction of a lotus tank with natural looking images of men, animals, flowers, birds and fishes representing the Samavasarana faith of Jainism. The pillars are also carved with dancing girl and the king and the queen.[18]
Paintings in the roof of the Ardhamnatapa are the mural paintings with Samavasarana theme. The mural exhibits a water tank or khatika-bhumi which is shown with the tank made of tiles filled with lotus flowers and surrounded by bhavyas ("the faithful"), elephants, fishes, one fish shown as jumping out of water, pillars with figurines of Pandya king Srimara Srivallabha (9th century AD) and his queen offering reverence to Ilam Gautaman, an acharya of
The study done by an artist on the depictions of the roof painting panel reveals: 3 birds, a man in loin cloth plucking flowers and the man is shown with a lily on right hand and lotuses on left hand, an elephant and fishes swimming, bird's eye on the top left corner.[13]
Though severely damaged due to vandalism, remaining Frescoes have been preserved on the top parts of columns and ceilings inside the temple. Many of them are typical of the 9th century Pandyan period and include detailed pictures of elephants, buffaloes, fish, geese, Jains gathering lotuses from a pond and dancing girls.[19] These frescoes are considered to be some of the best frescoes of medieval India next to frescoes of Ajanta Caves and Bagh Caves.[3][4][10] Not so well planned is the arrangement of panels of the Sittanvassal cave temple; the idea of an ensemble has not been adopted but arranged in a haphazard way.[20]
Painting of the Sittanvasal Caves were analysed to establish the technique and the material used to make the. Analysing a painting of a lotus pond in the ardhamantpam, it has been inferred that they are made with
The condition of paintings are deteriorating.[22]
In Popular Culture
Lyricist Vaali has made a reference to the Sittanavasal caves in two of his songs - Enna Vilai Azhage (Movie - Kaadalar Dinam) and Sorgathin Vasapadi (Movie - Unnai Solli Kutramillai)
Gallery
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Parshva
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A Jain image
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Tirthankar sculpture
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Passage leading to Rock Beds
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One of 17 rock beds
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Rock Bed Inscriptions
See also
References
Citations
- ^ "Sittannavasal: relics from the 2nd century B.C." The Hindu.
- ^ "Rocky retreat". The Hindu. 25 October 2012. Archived from the original on 26 November 2004.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "S u d h a r s a n a m:A centre for Arts and Culture" (PDF). Indian Heritage Organization. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Sittanavasal – A passage to the Indian History and Monuments". Puratattva: The Legacy of Chitrasutra, Indian History and Architecture. Archived from the original on 14 August 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ "The Ajanta of TamilNadu". The Tribune. Tribune, India. 27 November 2005.
- ^ Behl, Benoy K. (7 March 2014). "Appreciate the ancient". The Hindu. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
- ^ "Adarsh Smarak Monument". Archaeological Survey of India. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
- ^ C., Sivaramamurthi (2004). Mahabalipuram. New Delhi: The Archaeological Survey of India, Government of India. p. 3, 5.
- ^ a b c "Rock-cut Jaina temple, Sittannavasal". Archaeological Survey of India. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ "Alphabetical List of Monuments – Tamil Nadu". Archaeological Survey of India. 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
- ^ "List of ticketed monuments – Tamil Nadu". Archaeological Survey of India. 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
- ^ a b "Poetry in Stone". Poetry in Stone. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ "Pudukottai: Treasure trove of archaeology". Official web site of Tamilnadu Tourism. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ Anand, Mulk Raj (1973). Album of Indian paintings. National Book Trust, India; [sole distributors: Thomson Press (India), Delhi. p. 45. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
- ^ "Cave Paintings in India". CulturalIndia.net. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ "Legends across panels". The Hindu. India. 13 June 2004. Archived from the original on 15 June 2004.
- ^ a b "Plaque at the site showing details of rocjkcut Jaina Temple (Aravirkovil". Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ "Rock-cut Jaina temple, Sittannavasal". Archaeological Survey of India. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ISBN 9788120823976. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ISBN 9781606060131. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ Krupa, Lakshmi (24 March 2014). "Saving Sittanavasal". The Hindu. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
Sources
- "Rock cut Jain temple, Sittanavasal". Archaeological Survey of India.