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.

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