Remnants of Ancient Jain site at Nattani

Tamil Nadu is a land of illustrious history. From Sangam age to the current times, Tamil Nadu evolves with the propagation and convergence of different schools of thoughts which resulted now in the richness of its wide range of culture and customs.

In recent times, I have been listening and coming across through various instances about the Jains in Tamil Nadu. This somehow resulted in visiting a Jain temple at Chitharal in Kanyakumari during my visit to the tip of the southernmost district of the state. Later, I visited the Jain sculpture at Nattani near Sastra University in the outskirts of Thanjavur, of which I was curious about since a long time.  But, the Jain sculpture found in Nattani comes within the Pudukottai district.

Nattani is located in the area where Thanjavur and Pudukottai shares their borders. Throughout the borderlines of both the historically rich districts, there are lot of beautiful heritage sites to be explored. One of them is the grand sanctum of Kan Niraindha Perumal and the adjoining shrine of Vageesamudaiyar. 

Mahavir Jain Sculpture- Nattani

The remote location of Mahavir sculpture at Nattani was found by the group of senior archaeology enthusiasts collectively from the organization of Madurai Jain Heritage Centre. Based on Madurai, people from this organization work for the preservation of the remnants of their glorious Jain history that flourished in important religious centers in ancient Tamil Nadu. These senior cultural enthusiasts identify and try to make these kind of unexplored sites to hold a place among the tourists’ circuits.

The Bhagavan Mahavir sculpture at Nattani, at first sight gives us a divine vibe, with his gracious smile. This is said to be one of the well-preserved sculpture of Bhagavan Mahavir that is closely located near Thanjavur. Most of the local villagers are not even aware of this divine sculpture. Currently this sculpture is located immediately beside the Nattani Amman Temple, under the vast shelter of the blue sky. Due to passage of time and human vandalism, most of these antique sites, icons and sculptures of Jain Thirthankars were either eroded or destroyed.

Speaking to Mr. Anantharaj, secretary general of the Madurai Jain Heritage Centre said that their organization and the community of Jains in Tamil Nadu are supporting them as per their comfort and are doing a commendable job. He also mentioned that they have laid signage in almost 19 such sites they’ve identified so far. He also stressed on the importance of identifying such abandoned sculptures and placing them in the exact place as they are found without disturbing the location patterns and the historical significance of the site.

Within the vicinity of the greatest Jain beds in Pudukottai district, possibly Nattani was also one of the important sites. Pudukottai has the most number of Jain sites and the most number of protected ASI sites than the other districts of Tamil Nadu. Jainism was thriving once upon a time in the state, of which the evidences stand as tall and strong in Sittannavasal, Kazhugumalai and many other such cave shelters and temples. There seems to be a lot of such statues which are lying around the border of Pudukottai-Thanjavur-Trichy. But in Nattani, today we could only find the traces of an old Shiva Temple as well within the boundary-less compound of the temple.

Yours East Gaterr