Samanars
About a year ago, while we were walking back to our car my dad had casually pointed in a direction along a dirt path and said that there is supposedly a bat cave somewhere beyond that. Never passing up an opportunity to visit caves and ancient relics I took up a little trek through an abandoned looking trail. I came across a desolate almost surreal looking opening between two boulders with steps leading up a hill to the mouth of a small cave. This was Samanar Site 3 (see links below). Samanars (at least that’s what they were called in Tamil Nadu) were among the many precursors to what later became Jainism.
{ Jainism (and Buddhism) flourished in Tamil Nadu and contributed greatly to its classical prose literature, but by around 7AD Jainism (and the Samanar tradition) lost its following when they started becoming fundamentalist. For example, as humanistic as Jainism was it had its share of untouchability (against non-Jains). In fact even the “sound” of a Shaivite chanting his mantras entering the ears of a Jain would be considered as “pollution” and the Jain would undergo severe purgation rituals. As a result Jains created many Jain-only areas, resulting in resentment among the locals, nor did it gain following. As with any faith, when the faith becomes less tolerant, i.e. more fundamentalist, it loses its appeal (at least among intelligent sensible people/cultures :)). In fact Jainism started becoming so puritanical, that it resulted in severe conflicts with other faiths (particularly the other dominent faith at that time – that of Shaivism), that it even resulted in Jains being faced with brutal persecution.}
A few months later, a friend called me for a walkabout tour of the area (being organized by the Archaeological Society of India, and guided by one retired professor of Arts & Humanities of Madurai Kamaraj University, Prof. Venkatraman).
Little did I know that there were so many gems like this all around the locality where I live. Searching the internet for more details came up with nothing. When I asked Prof. Venkatraman, even though he was walking treasure trove of knowledge on Samanars, he had not a single publication he could refer me to. Apparently like many teachers of previous generations, they transmitted knowledge in the oral tradition (I guess universities back then were free from pressures of “publish or perish”).
The great oral tradition of transmission of knowledge might be gone, but I guess replaced by internet! I’ve added these here as time permits.