Chittannavasal Jain cave.

During this Christmas, we went to an interesting place called Chittannavasal near Pudukkottai in Tamilnadu.

Chittannavasal is known for its 9th century cave paintings on par with Ajanta and Ellora. The local Pandya (history books wrongly attribute to a Pallava king) king Srimara Srivallabha created an indenture on the hillside for the Jain monks. We saw a few Jain thirtankaras carved on the walls of the indenture. The ceiling has an exquisite painting describing probably a pond nearby. The colors would have been vivid when they were initially painted. Beyond all the vandalism, we could see beautiful wall and ceiling frescoes.On the ceiling was a vividly described lotus pond with monks, women, ducks, swans and animals going in for the waters and flowers.

There is a small room (probably a 12x12). Standing in the middle of that room, if I vocalise any sound in the audible range there is no echo. But if I hum inaudibly, the room starts echoing and soon the entire room reverberates in a loud drone! Not everyone who went in could do it though. The guide was trying to show that he did lot of practice and only people who do a lot of meditation can do it. But me, my wife and my B-i-L could do it with ease. A must see historic place.