Yanaimalai

Yanaimalai, 'Elephant Hill', is a granite hill about 10 kilometres from Madurai's Mattuthavani bus stand, stretching for 3 kilometres and rising 90 metres. The name, from the Tamil yaanai and malai, comes from its likeness to a seated elephant and has been in use for more than 2,000 years.

The hill is sacred to Tamil Jains, and Jain monks lived here under the Pandyas. Caves near the top hold bas-reliefs of Mahavira, Gomateshwara and other Tirthankaras, along with stone beds the monks rested on and inscriptions in Tamil-Brahmi and Vattezhuthu. At the foot are two 8th-century rock-cut temples made by the Pandyas: the Ladan cave temple to Murugan and the Yoga Narasimha temple to Vishnu, at a spot called Narasingam. The Jain site is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India. Illegal quarrying has scarred the hill, and in 2010 local protests stopped a government plan for a sculpture garden on it.