Armamalai Cave is known for its Indian cave paintings. It is to the west of Malayampattu village which is from

Ambur Ambur is a town and municipality in newly announced Tirupattur District, Tamil Nadu, India. It is located on the banks of the Palar River between Chennai and Bangalore. Ambur has a sizeable leather industry, and is known for its spicy biryani an ...

in the

Tirupattur district Tirupattur district, or Tirupathur district, is one of the 38 districts in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The district was formed in 2019 by the division of Vellore district into three smaller districts. Its creation alongside Ranipet ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. The cave is in the protected monument by the

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexand ...

and it is a Tamil Nadu tourist attraction.

Information

Stone carving with inscription Armamalai Caves

Armamalai cave is a natural cave which was converted to a

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

temple in 8th century AD. The cave contains 8th century Jain paintings, petroglyphs, rock art and the remains of Jain saints. The

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

paintings are on the roof and walls of the cave. The paintings were created by applying colours on the thin lime surface and over the thick mud surface. These paintings were made by the Jain monks who stayed in the cave during the period when their religion was flourishing in the ancient Tamil country. The paintings in the cave are applied by two techniques, Fresco and

Tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

. They are similar to the paintings of

Sittanavasal Cave Sittanavasal Cave (also, Arivar Koil) is a 2nd-century Tamil Śramaṇa complex of caves in Sittanavasal village in Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu, India. Its name is a distorted form of ''Sit-tan-na-va-yil'', a Tamil word which means "the ab ...

, another ancient Jain cave in Tamil Nadu and

Bagh Caves The Bagh Caves are a group of nine rock-cut monuments, situated among the southern slopes of the Vindhyas in Bagh town of Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh state in central India. These monuments are located at a distance of 97 km from Dhar ...

, an ancient Buddhist cave in

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

. The paintings in the cave are thought to be medieval

cave paintings in India The history of cave paintings in India or rock art range from drawings and paintings from prehistoric times, beginning in the caves of Central India, typified by those at the Bhimbetka rock shelters from around 10,000 BP, to elaborate frescoes ...

. Archeologists found the rock arts in the cave in the late 1960s. Previous research at the site by Gabriel Jouveau-Dubreuil, who died in 1945, had found antiquities of

Pallava dynasty The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The dynasty rose to prominence after the downfall of the Satavahana dynasty, with whom they had formerly served as f ...

, who ruled at that time. Jouveau-Dubreuil claimed to have discovered this cave from information he had found on the Udayendiram copper plates which had referred to a village given away by the Pallava ruler

Nandivarman II Nandivarman II (718 CE – 796 CE) was a Pallava ruler who ruled in South India. Sen states Nandivarman reigned from 731 CE – 796 CE and built the Vaikuntha-Perumal Temple. He was born in the country of Champa (modern day Vietnam) into a loca ...

that sounded like Kumaramangalam. Further enquiries enabled him to find the cave to the west of Malayampattu. The paintings explain the native stories of Jainism and also had images of ''Astathik Palakas'', also called as protectors of eight corners and they are

Agni Agni (English: , sa, अग्नि, translit=Agni) is a Sanskrit word meaning fire and connotes the Vedic fire deity of Hinduism. He is also the guardian deity of the southeast direction and is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu ...

, Vayu, Kubera, Eesanya, Indra, Yama, Niruthi and Varuna. There are petroglyphs of plants and swans depicted as well. Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions are also seen on the walls of the cave. Most of the paintings and other arts in the cave have been damaged for various reasons.

References

{{Jain Caves in India Indian paintings Tourist attractions in Tamil Nadu Jain rock-cut architecture Hills of Tamil Nadu 8th-century Jain temples Tamil architecture Pallava architecture