The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.
3031sites15countries4traditions30centuries
Early medieval · Jain · India
Kalugumalai Jain Beds
கழுகுமலை சமணர் படுகைகள்
Kazhugumalai, Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu · 9.1506°, 77.7042°
Jain Tirthankaras, including Parshvanatha and GomateshwaraPandyaPandyan rock-cut
Sacred since
768 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
late 8th c. (Pandya)
Pandya
History & significance
About 150 rock-cut niches of Tirthankaras carved into the Kalugumalai hill under the Pandya king Parantaka Nedunjadaiya in the late 8th century, left unfinished. Its 98 inscriptions form the largest single concentration of Jain epigraphs in the far south, a fifth of them naming women mendicants.