Thekkattur was a sleepy village. I missed my own village, when I went there. The rhythms of villege life contrast sharply with the frenetic pace of urban living. If we pause to reflect on the purpose behind our hurried urban existence, we might struggle to justify it.

Probably, many people think this way and realize the other side of economy-driven countries. Many nations face declining birth rates and aging population, with some individuals forbids marriage and parenthood.

However, our focus shifts from these global trends to more localized societal phenomenon. We went to Thekkattur to trace our ancient society.

Pudukkottai was one of the Jaina settlements. In this series itself, I wrote about Sittannavasal, Samanar Kudagu and Kudumiyamalai. There are so many other places where you can see Tirtankara image. One of them was Thekkattur.

Kiran (Or the Professor) had learned about this site from historical documentation. With no knowledge of its whereabouts, we went there. We were confident to reach the place by enquiring the locals, but it does not take much time to prove us wrong.

None of them know words like Tirtankara, or Jain. One lady on the outskirts of the village sounds like she understood what we search for. She pointed to direction, we went there without any second thought. With a barb wire fencing, Tirtankara was sitting alone with traces of Kunkumam on his shoulders.

The lady said it was Kali image, anyway she wanted us to view it first. Yes, the image was worshiped as Kunkuma kali.

Jainism spread in this southern part of India during late of BCE. They contributed to Tamil literature and grammar. Kings, specifically, Pandya-s, patronized Jainism. I have written about Srimaran Srivallabhan in this series.

Jain ascetics used the beds, polished in the natural caverns, over 1000 years, to perform penance. The beds are testament to the lineage of teachers, as some of their names are mentioned in the beds. One of the oldest Tamil Brahmi inscription, found in Sittannavasal mention this history.

erumi nāṭu kumuḻūr piṟanta kāvuṭi īteṉku ciṟu pōcil iḷayar
ceyta atiṭṭāṉam.

எருமி நாடு குமிழூர் பிறந்த காவுடி ஈதென்கு சிறு போசில் இளயர்
செய்த அதிட்டனம்.

एरुमि नाडु कुमिळूर् पिऱन्त कावुडि ईतेन्कु चिऱु पोचिल् इळयर्
चेय्त अतिट्टनम्।

Let me quote from prof S Swaminathan –

It mentions that one iḷayar of teṉku ciṟu pōcil made this seat for kāvuṭi born in Kumiḻūr in Erumi nāṭu. It is believed that the Kumiḻūr in Erumi nāṭu refers to a place in the present Vellore district.

This part of land accepted them as teachers and their abode was considered as school or Palli. Names of cities like Tiruchirappalli (abode of saint Siraa), Thirukattupalli (temple of Mahavira) have direction mention of Jain monasteries.

Other than this, there are many places, where isolated sculptures of Tirtankara was found. Thekkattur was one of them. What made me happy was, this image was in better place compared to its counter part at Annavasal and Bommadi Malai. The Annavasal surrounding was so horrible that made us to double think before we go near by. This was more than two decades ago, well before the Jaina association cleaned and erected boards.

Let it be worshipped as Tirtankara or Kali, it will make the one who erected that sculpture happy!

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