Not far away from the town of Pudukottai is Sittanavasal ,
abode of Jain saints .
Uneven rock cut steps, up a small hill leads
one to the monastery. The monastery is
quite small, it has a small sanctum with
idols of 3 Jain Tirthankars. Just outside the sanctum too, there are two
statues of Tirthankars. The ceiling
outside the sanctum has 7 th century frescoes.
Though we cannot identify the painting on our own, a good effort was made
by the guide who is posted there.
Frescoes as mentioned by the guide are - Fish floating in a pond, a lady adorned
with jewellery ; jewellery was very much in use in 7th century
too :) ,beautiful maidens plucking
lotuses , a saint clad in saffron robes
and elephants playing in the pond. Some have started peeling off.
The monastery is in a rock cut cave . The unique thing about
this place is- if one enters the sanctum and concentrates on one’s breath,
inhales and exhales slowly then we can hear a humming sound something like
vibrations reflecting from the wall. The
sanctum is a very small room with no windows. What baffles me a lot is, when we
talk, it does not resonate. That small room might have been used by the sages
living there. This looked as if abandoned and neglected for a few years and it
has come under the Archaeological
department of India now. Have a look at pictures I could capture. Photography
inside the monastery is prohibited.
21 comments:
Thanks for sharing this info. Until I read this, I did not know about this Jain Monestary. When I hear Pudukottai, I always thought of Bhuvaneswari Amman Temple.
Hi SG,
thanks for the comment. As we were in Dindigul we could get information about lot of temples from locals and we did visit this.
Short and sweet. Sittanvasal is in my wish list. Though I am at Chennai at present, I will not venture out. Already sweating a lot. There are two ancient Jain temples in Jina Kanchi worth visiting.
lovely reading about the place...beautiful captures!
PNS, thanks.Do visit only during winter. Climb is not much but it is is straining during summer.
Kalyan, thanks for the visit and comment.
Wow, I can only imagine the positive energy in this place inhabited by the sages. Your beautiful pictures already speak of peace and tranquility. How fascinating to hear the humming sound as well. Would so love to make it to all these fascinating gems that you show us here, someday.
PS: Wish you a wonderful journey to your native place. :)
How fabulous, well worth the climb I should imagine though I'd have to send hubby up to take pictures whilst I sat at the bottom.
Thanks for sharing this. Interesting unknown place.
http://rajniranjandas.blogspot.in/2013/05/haziness.html
super chitraji as always:)
thanks Rameshji
thanks Niranjan for the comment.
I understand PW, It was tiring as it was summer time.
thaks Arti, the humming sound was fascinating and was mysterious too.
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Beautiful..!
thanks Sridharan..
Day before yeasterday I visited Thiruvannamalai and while returning went to visit Thirumalai Jain cave temples some 30 kms down the road. It gave me a feel of Sittanvasal. I have prepared a post in Hindi but yet to upload.
Chitra, missed your posts! :-)
There is so much from the Jain and Buddhist past in South India; loved this post!
Nice to see you Shri. happy:)
Ive been here long time ago....very poorly maintained heritage spot. I was very disappointed.
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