The Kodaikanal hills are not only rich in natural resources but also historical significance. The discovery of prehistoric dolmens near Kodaikanal a couple of years ago proved that the hills have been a site of human inhabitation from time immemorial.
Adding a feather to the hill town’s cap, art historian K.T. Gandhirajan and amateur historian Sakthi Prakash have recently found ruins of age-old temples in Adukkam and Poombarai areas.
About 800 metres deep inside the jungle from the main road in Adukkam, we found ruins of a temple, including an ornate entrance arch which is still intact. The rest of the pillars and sculptures have become highly dilapidated due to thick vegetation growing on them. We have also found stones with engravings,” said Mr. Gandhirajan, a researcher of rock art.
The team found another dilapidated temple atop a hillock in Poombarai. “According to the locals, this could have been the older ‘Kuzhanthai Velappar’ temple. The basement of the old structure is still there while the pillars have been used by the locals in their houses. On one such pillar, a bas relief is found where a woman is depicted fighting a ferocious tiger,” he added.
“Called as ‘pulikuthikal,’ stone sculptures with images of a human fighting a tiger have been found as individual hero stones and not as part of a temple. Also, this is a rare find as the human shown is a woman. She is shown attacking the beast with two swords,” he said.
Mr. Gandhirajan postulates that both these temples must be at least 800 years old, belonging to the pre-Vijayanagara later-Pandya period and that they could have been places of night stay for traders. “An inscription in Thandikudi that refers to a trade route connecting Palani in the erstwhile Pandya country to Kodungallur and Vanchi in present day Kerala was found earlier. A trade route through the hills and jungles could sound unlikely but was the preferred route for trading spices like pepper,” he said.
Mr. Gandhirajan added that the government should conduct exploratory research and excavation in Adukkam and Poombarai, so that more facts about these temples could be known.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/temple-ruins-found-on-kodaikanal-hills/article29511679.ece
