VELUDHARAN TEMPLES VISIT : Ancient 1008 Adinath Bhagwan Digambar Jain Temple, Mudhunagar, Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu.

Wednesday, 20 November 2019

Ancient 1008 Adinath Bhagwan Digambar Jain Temple, Mudhunagar, Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu.

03^rd November 2019,

The visit to this Jain temple is a part of the 71^st Ahimsa walk organized by the Tamil Samanars (Jains) at K N Pettai (Kumarappa Naicken Pettai), near Cuddalore and Thiruvanthipuram. Visited this temple before the Ahimsa walk.

Presiding Deity: Sri Adinath Bhagwan

Some of the important details of this Temple are….

The Jinalaya is facing east with an entrance arch. Bailpedam and Dwajasthambam are after the entrance. The Jinalaya was built with sanctum sanctorum, antarala, artha mandapam and a mukha mandapam. An ekathala vimana is over the sanctum. The Stucco images of Tirthankaras are on the sides of Vimana in sitting posture. The niches / Koshtas are empty. The moolavar Adinath is in standing posture and looks cute. The Chakras like Siddha Chakra, Navagraha Chakras are kept in antarala.

In the prakara, on the left is the kshetrapalaka, and on the right is the Adinath pada and mandapam on the right side. Brahma devar with his consorts, Mahavira Tirthankara, Parshvanath Tirthankara, Chandraprabhu Tirthankara, Neminatha Thirthankara’s Yaksha and Yakshini Gomeda or Srvahna & Ambika or Kushmandini and Dharma Devi are in the mandapa. The original stone mandapa was extended on both sides during the recent period, keeping part of the old pillars.

HISTORY & INSCRIPTION

This Jain Temple was built in 1891 CE by the then South Arcot British period Collector Sri Balaiyya Nainar. In 1865 CE, during the excavation of earth for constructing a house for his daughter, this Adinath Bhagwan idol was found. A 4500 sq ft land was obtained from the Government and a temple was built for this Adinath Tirthankara. It was believed that this idol belonged before the 8^th Century and was worshiped by Dharmasena -I and II. During the 1^st Century, It is noted that one of the two groups of Jain monks who traveled from Shravanabelagola, settled at this place and established a learning center, and the same was later called as Then Pataliputra ( south Pataliputra ). This learning center was headed by Dharmasena-I, and after Dharmasena-II he later converted to Savaite called Appar alias Thirunavukkarasar is a different story.

The inscription tablet is fixed on the wall of the mukha mandapa. The inscription reads as…

ஸ்ரீஜீநாய நம: