![Kizhavalavu (Kilavalavu) -Jain Sculptures](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Kizhavalavu_%28Kilavalavu%29_-Jain_Sculptures.JPG)
Keezhavazhavu (also known as Kilavalavu and Keelavalavu and Kizhavalavu) is a village in
Madurai district
Madurai district is one of the Districts of Tamil Nadu, 38 districts of the States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu in southeastern India., National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Ag ...
of
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. It is located from
Madurai
Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...
. It is known for two
hillock
A hillock or knoll is a small hill,[The Free Dictionary](_blank)
"hillock" entry, retrieved December 18, 2007 ...
s called ''Panchapandavar Malai'' or ''Panchapandavar Padukkai'' which contains ancient
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 ...
sculptures and stone beds, and another is Sakkarai peer oliulla Mountain. It has a cave.
Description
![Kizhavalavu (Kilavalavu)-Panchapandavar beds](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Kizhavalavu_%28Kilavalavu%29-Panchapandavar_beds.JPG)
Keelavalavu is located in the
Melur taluk of Madurai district. It is located from Melur. In the
2011 census of India
The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...
, it had a population of 5686, of which 2847 were males and 2839 females. The village is rich in
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
and it is one of the hubs for
illegal quarrying in the district.
Panchapandavar Malai
Panchapandavar Malai (Hill of Five
Pandava
The Pandavas (Sanskrit: पाण्डव, IAST: Pāṇḍava) refers to the five legendary brothers— Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva—who are the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. They are acknowledg ...
s) is located in the village on the
Melur
Melur is the Northern entrance of Madurai district. It is the town and municipality in the Madurai North in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Melur Old Name is Called Naduvi Nadu. The name Melur name comes from "Mela Nadu". Melur is called Thaigra ...
–
Tiruppattur road.
The hillock contains caves that were converted as adobe by the Jain monks who lived here when their religion flourished in the
ancient Tamil country
Tamiḻakam (Tamil: தமிழகம்; Malayalam: തമിഴകം), refers to the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nad ...
.
The hillock is one of the
national monuments
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
declared 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 Alexande ...
.
The cave contains nine Jain sculptures belonging to 9th and 10th century AD, including sculptures of
Mahavira
Mahavira (Sanskrit: महावीर) also known as Vardhaman, was the 24th ''tirthankara'' (supreme preacher) of Jainism. He was the spiritual successor of the 23rd ''tirthankara'' Parshvanatha. Mahavira was born in the early part of the 6t ...
, the last
thirthankara
In Jainism, a ''Tirthankara'' (Sanskrit: '; English: literally a 'ford-maker') is a saviour and spiritual teacher of the ''dharma'' (righteous path). The word ''tirthankara'' signifies the founder of a '' tirtha'', which is a fordable passag ...
and
Bahubali
Bahubali (), a much revered figure among Jains, was the son of Rishabadeva (the first ''tirthankara'' of Jainism) and the brother of Bharata Chakravartin. He is said to have meditated motionless for a year in a standing posture (''kayotsarg ...
.
It also contains
Tamil-Brahmi
Tamil-Brahmi, also known as Tamizhi or Damili, was a variant of the Brahmi script in southern India. It was used to write inscriptions in the early form of Old Tamil.Richard Salomon (1998) ''Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscription ...
and
Vatteluttu
''Vatteluttu,'' popularly romanised as ''Vattezhuthu'' ( ta, வட்டெழுத்து, ' and ml, വട്ടെഴുത്ത്, ', ), was a syllabic alphabet of south India (Tamil Nadu and Kerala) and Sri Lanka used for writing t ...
inscriptions.
The Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in the cave were discovered by Venkoba Rao in 1903. The inscriptions were engraved from right to left and upside-down. This kind of inscription is only found here in the
Kundrakudi
Kundrakudi is a village in Sivaganga district that houses a famous Murugan temple, Shanmughanathar Temple, atop a small hill near Karaikudi, India.
Location and places of interest
Kundrakudi is situated very near to Karaikudi
Karaikudi ...
hill.
There are stone beds in the caves which were used by Jain monks for rest. An inscription in the cave mentions that these stone beds were sculptured by a person from
Thondi
Thondi or Tondi is a Panchayat town in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located 48Km North from district headquarters Ramanathapuram
Ramanathapuram (), also known as Ramnad, is a town and a municipality in Ra ...
.
Quarrying
The granite quarrying in the hillock, carried out by the government and private companies, vandalised some of the sculptures and inscriptions.
In response to a
public interest litigation The chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India is public interest litigation (PIL) or social action litigation (SAL). ''Public interest litigation'' (PIL) refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and de ...
filed by the residents of the village in 2008, in 2011 the Madurai bench of
Madras High Court
The Madras High Court is a High Court in India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is located in Chennai, and is the third oldest high court of India after the Calcutta High C ...
banned the granite-quarrying activities of the
Tamil Nadu Minerals Limited (TAMIN) and private companies inside an area of around the hillock, citing the presence of a Jain monument of archaeological importance.
References
{{Madurai district
Jain rock-cut architecture
Hills of Tamil Nadu
Caves of Tamil Nadu
Villages in Madurai district
Archaeological sites in Tamil Nadu
9th-century Jain temples