Jaina Temples of Tamil Nadu

Objectives

Even though important on a historical point of view and still alive today, the Jain presence in Tamil Nadu, consisting on the one hand of ancient Digambara communities of the South, and on the other hand of immigrant merchant communities from Western India, is badly assessed. Temples of this region make up for a rich heritage still unrecognised. We wish to make a CD-ROM that presents the temples in their artistic and religious dimension, as an architectural heritage and living place, and that sheds light on the uniqueness of Jainism in Tamil Nadu.

Materials and methods

This study of Jain temples of Tamil Nadu will focus on the architecture, the iconography, the epigraphy, as well as the rites and celebrations. The CD-ROM will include a map of all the Jain sites in Tamil Nadu and a large photographic documentation based on the Pondicherry photo archives, and enhanced with new photographs taken by the project team. Sites that are the subject of monographs will be selected according to their representativity and their importance in history and in the world today.

Partners

• French Institute of Pondicherry
• UMR 7528 Mondes iranien et indien (CNRS-Paris III-EPHE-INALCO)
• Mel Sittamur math

Funding

• UMR 7528 Mondes iranien et indien (CNRS-Paris III-EPHE-INALCO)
• ARCUS Île-de-France Region

Team

• Nalini Balbir (University Paris III)
• Karine Ladrech (University Paris IV)
• N. Murugesan (IFP)
• K. Ramesh Kumar (IFP)
• Jean-Pierre Muller (Photography)

Keywords: Jainism, Digambara, Tamil Nadu, temple, architecture, ritual, celebration