The Chitharal Jain Monuments and Bhagavati Temple, also known as Chitharal Malai Kovil (literally "Temple on the Hill"), Chitaral Cave Temple or Bhagavati Temple, are located near Chitharal village in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, India. They consist of stone beds with inscriptions, and two monuments – one rock cut Jain temple with outer wall reliefs and one Hindu goddess temple next to it that is a combination of rock-cut and stone that was added during the reign of Vikramaditya Varaguna Pandya. The monuments are from the 9th century CE.
Location
The Chitharal Jain Monuments and Bhagavati Temple are situated near the southern tip of peninsular India, about 55 kilometers northwest of Kanyakumari (Highway 66) and about 4 kilometers northeast of Kuzhittura town (Highway 90). They are on the Thiruchanattu Malai (Thiruchanattu hillocks) locally known as Chokkanthoongi Hills. The monuments are on the north side of Chitharal village. The monuments' entrance is marked and is under the management of ASI Thrissur circle. From the entrance board, they can be reached by roughly hewn steps in rocks uphill, midst cashew, coconut and rubber-plantation trees.
History
Tiruchchāraṇattumalai
Inscriptions found at the site and elsewhere such as the Kalugumalai Jain Beds suggest that the history of these monuments extend over the 1st-millennium CE, with some inscriptions in the Hindu temple dateable in the 13th-century. In these historical inscriptions and literature, this site is referred to as Thiruchāraṇathupalli, or just Tiruccāraṇam. The hillock is also referred to as Tiruchchāraṇattu malai, which means "the hill holy to the Chāraṇas" (Jain ascetics).
The site consists of beds and two monuments. The older rock-cut Jain beds with inscriptions and drip-ledges among the boulders at the site are the earliest Jain monument in the southernmost part of India. The Archaeological Survey of India states that the beds are from first century BCE to sixth century CE. The cave temple and main Jain monument is from the 9th-century, with three sanctums that has always had Jain iconography – Parsvanatha (left), Mahavira and Padmavati since they were carved in-situ from the stone and have not been damaged. Next to it is a Hindu temple dedicated to goddess Bhagavati (Parvati) which was likely added after the 9th-century, and expanded with mandapa and other Hindu temple architectural elements through the 13th-century based on epigraphic evidence of donors.
The Jain beds and temple are Digambara Jain monuments. They are one of many found in Tamil Nadu from a period prior to the 14th-century. Jainism was active in this region, as evidence by inscriptions and literature in the Madurai region by about 1st-century BCE, and more broadly by the Pallava era, including those from the era of King Mahendravarman I (early 7th-century) famous for sponsoring Jain monuments as well as Hindu sites such as the Mahabalipuram monuments.
According to T. A. Gopinatha Rao, the inscription on the southern side says Gunandagi-kurattigal, the disciple of Arattanemi - Bhatariyar of Peravakkudi, presented Bhatariyar of Tiruchchanam malai with some golden ornament during the 28th year of reign of Vikramaditya Varaguna. There is much evidence and an established chronology about the Hindu monarch Vikramaditya of Ay dynasty, states Gopinath Rao, and this helps date this temple to the 9th-century. The inscription is Tamil language in Vatteluttu script.
The Bhagavati temple was an active place for worship for the locals Hindus, when the entire site's significance and antiquity was discovered by archaeologists. However, their general condition was in ruins as attested by the archived 19th-century photographs of the site taken by Gopinath Rao. He remarked that the outside was ruined, but the cave temple was mostly intact. The exception being the murals and plastered images which had been damaged along with the Padmavati Devi image. Gopinath Rao states that these were "destroyed by [art] thieves" in late 19th-century or early 20th-century. The original statues of Mahavira and Parswanatha remain in good condition.
The monument has been cleaned up, many parts of it rebuilt and restored, particularly the partial Vimana on top of the cave temple. The site has a natural "heart shaped" pond below the temple and provides a picturesque view of the farmlands and valley villages.