English: Chitral or Chitharal rock cut Jain Bhagavati temple is located on top of granite rock (Triuchcharanattu malai) in a village situated north of NH 66 and SH 90, west of SH 3 highways in Tamil Nadu.
The site is ancient, and consists of two monuments. The oldest is dated to 1st-century BCE through 6th-century CE, consisting of rock beds, reliefs and inscriptions. These are the oldest known southernmost Jain presence near the southern tip of Indian subcontinent (Kanyakumari).
The second monument is a Bhagavati temple created by cutting into the rock and installing a southern style Jain crowning spire above the rock. A mandapa and masonry ceiling was added in 13th to 14th century. The temple walls and flat square sections of some pillar have Tamil inscriptions, few in Vatteluthu (rounded) script. These mark donations by Jain merchants and Hindu kings to either construction or maintenance of the temple.
This is a derivative work on photos available in public domain and from wikimedia commons with CC3.0 license.
This upper photo was taken in the 19th-century, and published in 1910 by TA Gopinatha Rao in Travancore Archaeological Series 1 and 2. This is a photograph of the archived 2-D original, and therefore wikimedia commons PD-Art guidelines apply. Any rights I have as a photographer, I herewith donate it to the public domain through wikimedia commons CC0.
The lower photo is
Chitharal Hill Jain Temple.JPG available under CC3.