Armamalai Cave and paintings, Malayambattu, Tirupattur District, Tamil Nadu.

29^th December 2019.

This visit to this cave was a part of the Temples and Hero Stones Visit around Vaniyambadi in Tirupattur District, scheduled on 29^th December  2019. This happened to be the last heritage Visit of this year. It is believed that this cave was once occupied by the Jain monks and a school was functioning. Also, this hill was called ”Arumpavi Malai”, which got corrupted to the present name of Armamalai.  The paintings and this cave were identified during the 1960s- 70s. The same was recorded in the Tamil Nadu Archaeological Department website also.

On reaching the Village of Malayambattu, we didn’t know the path to the cave. A schoolboy came to our rescue and he took us to this cave. It was about a 2 km walk on the bunds of the fields, to reach the foothills. A few steps are cut on the rock and a few steps are constructed to reach the Cave situated about 50 meters from the ground level. The cave is about 80 meters in length and 10 meters wide. The cave was divided into three parts. The first part is empty the surface is flat and there are no beds found. We found a Lotus pedestal with 10^th to 11^th Century Tamil inscription. There are also three pieces of a Dwarapalaka’s bas-relief carved on a flat stone.

In the second part of the cave, rooms are constructed with mud and unbaked bricks. The walls are raised up to the ceiling about 3 meters high. The rooms are small and difficult to live in.

The third part of the cave’s surface is not uniform. The ceilings have patches of paintings similar to Sittannavasal and Bagh Caves. Only a few patches are recognizable like flowers, leaves, a lotus, a man, a bird, etc.  The Colours like, red, green, blue, black and white are used.

The cave is now being used as a cattle shed and Bar by the drunkards.

After seeing the cave I have my own doubts.

1. How the cave was identified as Jains Cave ?.
2. Only with the two fragments of Sculptures, is it possible to judge a monument that existed in that cave? (No other structures are found)
3. Maybe the paintings can be compared with Sittannavasal. But this may not be proof to come to a conclusion that the cave belongs to Jainism.

Experts are requested to throw some light on this.

HOW TO REACH:

The Cave is in a Hill called Arma Malai about 2 KM from the Village called Malayambattu.

Malayambattu is about 10 KM from Vaniyambadi, 11 KM from Ambur, and 8.3 KM from Vinnamangalam.

The nearest Railway station is Vaniyambadi.

LOCATION OF THE CAVE: CLICK HERE

---OM SHIVAYA NAMA---