Ponnur Malai Jain temple

Ponnur Malai Jain temple
Ponnur Malai Jain temple
Religion
Affiliation	Jainism
Sect	Digambara
Deity	Rishabhanatha
Festivals	Mahavir Jayanti
Location
Location	Ponnur Hills, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu
Location within Tamil Nadu
Geographic coordinates	12°30′05.8″N 79°31′26.9″E

Ponnur Malai Jain temple is an ancient Jain pilgrimage center located in Ponnur Hills in Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu in India.

History

Ponnur Hill marks the place of birth for Jain Acharya Kundakunda. According to Jain beliefs, he visited Videha Kshetra and ascended to Heaven from here.

Temple

The temple enshrines an idol of Rishabhanatha inside the mukhya-mandapa. An idol of Jwalamalini was installed inside the temple in 1733 CE. The temple is noted for the worship of the tutelary deity Jwalamalini, who is popular among devotees. On Sundays, there is a tradition of carrying the image of Jwalamalini to the shrine of Helacharya, the originator of Jwalamalini tantric practices, in Nilgiri Mountains.

The temple houses the footprints, which are annually anointed.

Gallery

• 
  Idol of Kundakunda
• 
  Rishabhanatha
• 
  Entrance

References

Sources

• Hiltebeitel, Alf (1988). The Cult of Draupadi, Mythologies: From Gingee to Kuruksetra. Vol. 1. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226340463.
• Jain, Pankaj (2023). Modern Jainism: A Historical Approach. Springer. ISBN 9789819924851.
• Titze, Kurt; Bruhn, Klaus (1998). Jainism: A Pictorial Guide to the Religion of Non-Violence (2 ed.). Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-1534-6.
• Nandi, Ramendra Nath Nandi (1973). Religious Institutions and Cults in the Deccan, C. A.D. 600-A.D. 1000. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 9780842605649.
• Reddy, A. R. Ramachandra (1979). "Bangaramma Of Alaganipadu". Indian History Congress. 40: 496–500. JSTOR 44141991. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
• Settar, S. (1969). "The Cult of Jvālāmālinī and the Earliest Images of Jvālā and Śyāma". Artibus Asiae. 31 (4): 309–20. doi:10.2307/3249339. JSTOR 3249339. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
• Umamaheshwari, R. (2018). Reading History with the Tamil Jainas: A Study on Identity, Memory and Marginalisation. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures. Vol. 2. Springer. ISBN 9788132237563.

External links

• Media related to Ponnur Hills at Wikimedia Commons