Andimalai Jain Caves, Cholapandiyapuram

Cholapandiyapuram is a farming village in Tirukkoyilur taluk of Kallakurichi district, about 12 km from Tirukkoyilur. Its name refers to both the Cholas and the Pandyas, since it lay on the boundary between the two kingdoms, and in the 10th century it was a Jain centre. The reason to come is Andimalai, a hillock with Jain caves, stone beds, inscriptions and sculpture.

The hill has 25 stone beds, some with semicircular stone pillows, and rock carvings of Parshvanatha, Bahubali and Mahavira. One inscription names Sriveli Konkaraiyar Puddhadigal as the patron of the carvings; another, in verse, records that the chieftain Siddhavadavan, also called Sethirayan, granted Panaipadi village for their worship in 952 AD, the second regnal year of the Chola king Gandaraditya. Figures of Dharmadevi and Iyakki and two Adinatha statues brought from nearby villages are also kept here. Behind the hill, a cave locals call Irulan Kal, the Padiyendhal rock art site, has old paintings of horses and bows and arrows on its roof.