Arcot - Digambar Jain temple - English - Tourism

Digambar jain temple ,Arcot ,Tamil Nadu , India

by

David Prasanna
infobook22@gmail.com

Hi all ,

In this blog we are going to see about the 10th century Digambar Jain temple ( also called as Pancha pandava malai )  which is located near arcot. 

The Digambar Jain temple is located in between the arcot - kannamangalam route at a distance of about 7 km from arcot. Arcot is present in the vellore district of Tamilnadu in India. The route map is shown below.

1. To reach arcot from chennai , Tamilnadu
2. To reach Digambar Jain temple / Pancha pandava malai from arcot 

On the way itself you will be able to see the boards "pancha pandava malai - Rock cut sculptures and caves". This is estimated to be constructed during ninth to eleventh century period.

See also   Vellore Golden Temple and vellore Fort

The Sculpture constructed at that time seems to be of the mahendravarman style but articles say that there is no clear evidence of the type of sculpture.This rock cut sculpture is constructed with about 12 pillars 6 on the front and 6 on the rear.Nothing is carved during these days except the steps which are built outside recently for the visitors to step to the cave inside.

There are also some jainsh figures above the rockcut cave which is shown in the picture above on the bottom left side .The Jain people might have used this as a place for worship or may be for living purpose and these days very few people visit this place.

On the top is the 10th century digambar jain temple with some jainish sculptures and tamil inscriptions with some mughal cemetries.To reach the top the staircases have been constructed at that time itself as you can see from the picture below.

Once you reach the top there you can notice the figure of a female goddess yakshi sitting holding a fan in her left hand and under her there are 3 figures and a figure standing near her and it is sculptured below a rock and it is also above the small pond there.

On the rock which forms as ceiling of the serpant sculpture you can see a jain figure sitting with chakras above his head.On the left side of the same rock you can see a naked figure, an animal and olden days tamil inscriptions. That's it about the Digambar Jain temple.

These are the inscriptions which give you some details about the chola king's victory.Its sculptured using earlier tamil scripts which cannot be understood by people who know recent tamil which is used today.Some archaelogists will provide the correct details of it.

Tamil inscriptions

For more information on the jain temple Please Click here

 For video Click here 

See also Amirthi Zoo near Vellore

Delhi Gate

Now we head to the Delhi gate which is located on the banks of palar river in arcot constructed by robert clive as a mark of his victory against nawab.It is constructed at 1751 where the place arcot which served as a place for collecting tax for the trade which carried out thru the water which run through the palar river and robert clive acquired that from nawab and he used as a place for collecting tax.

It also has a subway near it which has been used by the queen called as rani in local language , in whcih the queen used to come via the subway from ranipettai to reach the pool in arcot for taking bath and that place is called as raja rani kottai.Now the pools are not used by anyone. 

Subway

Visit Rajiv Gandhi Memorial


The Raja koattai which served as a swimming pool for the king those days is now left without any maintenance and the architecture is getting destroyed day by day.

Rajakottai

Ranikottai

  The one above is the Rani koattai which is used as a swimming pool by the queen in the olden days which has a dress changing room painted white. The steps reach to the down to the pool's bottom.Now its left without any maintenance.

Thank you.

Contact the author