Neganur Patti is a 1 sq. kilometre village in

Gingee Gingee, also known as Senji or Jinji and originally called Singapuri, is a panchayat town in Viluppuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Gingee is located between three hills covering a perimeter of 3 km, and lies west of the Sa ...

taluk in

Villuppuram Viluppuram, Villupuram, or Vizhuppuram () is a Municipality and the administrative headquarters of Viluppuram district. Located south west of a Tiruvannamalai and north west of Cuddalore null The town serves as a major railway junction, ...

district in the

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 ...

n state of

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 major occupation of the people living at this place is agriculture. In 2012 it had a population of 3000 people.

Location

Neganur Patti is located northeast of Gingee.

Transportation

Town buses depart from Gingee bus stand (bus no: 11-A, 11-B) to Vedal go through Neganur Patti. Otherwise, one can alight at Melkalavai Koot road bus stop (all buses going from Gingee to Melmalayanur) and can take shared auto.

About the village

Neganur Patti consists of small hillock called Adukkankal which is 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 ...

cave with prehistoric paintings,

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 Inscriptio ...

stone inscription and traces of the presence of Jain beds.

Adukkankal Jain Beds

The attractive feature of this village is the presence of hillock called Adukkankal. Since it looks as if large stones are piled up one over the other, it got its name (in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

"Adukku" means "pile up" and "kal" means "stone"). Just above the bottom of the hillock

inscriptions are seen. In the bottom of this hillock, two caves are located on the either side. Both the caves contains the traces of stone beds possibly used by

monks. Also a small pond is seen near to one of the caves. The floor of the cave were broken for construction works which needs protection.

Tamil Brahmi
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 ...
inscriptions

The 4th century C. E.

letters on the adukkankal was first discovered by Archaeologist S. Rajavelu in 1992. The content of the script is " Perum pogazh sekkanthi thayiyuru sekkanthanni se vitha palli" (sekkanthanni, mother of sekkanthi of Perumpugozh village has built this abode) ( ta, பெரும் பொகழ் சேக்கந்தி தாயியரு சேக்கந்தன்னி செ யி வித்த பள்ளி). Archeologists believe that sekkanthanni to be a female

saint and the village Perumpogazh might be the present day perumpugai village which is near to Neganur Patti.

Rock paintings

Another interesting feature of this village is the presence of 1000 B.C. rock paintings in the adukkankal cave. These are white and hence these paints could be made by using lime. Only men is seen in the paintings. There are no animals painted. Some paintings are very weak and could not be able to resolve.

References

*D. Ramesh, "Nadunaattu Samanakovilkal" Second edition, Tamilventhan Pathippagam, Ulundurpettai (2005). *D. Thulasiraman, "Tamizhaga Tolpazhankalamum Poondi agazhvaippagamum", First edition, State Department of Archaeology, Chennai (2005). *T. S. Sridhar, "Tamil-Brahmi Kalvettukal", First edition, State Department of Archaeology, Chennai (2006).

External links

{{commons category
Neganur Patti rock paintings videoauthor's site
Villages in Viluppuram district Jain temples in Tamil Nadu Jain rock-cut architecture