Samanar means Jain in Tamil. It is derived from the Sanskrit shramana, which refers to all hermits, not just Jains, or more specifically those who prefer meditation and austerities to Vedic rituals in all matters spiritual. Malai is Tamil for hill. The Samanar stands in the village of Keezh Kuyil Kudi, just 15km outside Madurai, and my friend’s suggestion seemed like a perfect detour. So, after a quick lunch, we drove out of the city. Little did I know that going up and down this hill of hermits would be a journey through 2,500 years of Jain history.

Devdutt Pattanaik hikes up a hill in Madurai to map its height in 2,500 years of Jain history in Tamil Nadu I had heard that the nose-ring of Meenakshi, a local manifestation of Parvati, goddess-queen of Madurai, is removed each night as she awaits her consort, Sundareswarar, Shiva, in her jasmine-filled bedchamber. “That ceremony starts only after 9pm,” my friend, an amateur historian, told me. He suggested we use our time to visit the Samanar Malai. Samanar means Jain in Tamil. It is derived from the Sanskrit shramana, which refers to all hermits, not just Jains, or more specifically those who prefer meditation and austerities to Vedic rituals in all matters spiritual. Malai is Tamil for hill. The Samanar stands in the village of Keezh Kuyil Kudi, just 15km outside Madurai, and my friend’s suggestion seemed like a perfect detour. So, after a quick lunch, we drove out of the city. Little did I know that going up and down this hill of hermits would be a journey through 2,500 years of Jain history.

As we passed rice fields, I remembered reading reports of recent excavations in the fields of Keezhadi, a village in Sivaganga district, near Madurai, by the Archaeological Survey of India that have revealed structures strikingly similar to those found in the cities of the 5,000-year-old Indus-Saraswati civilization. Though these are more recent, maybe 2,200 years old, this discovery does give some credence to the highly controversial hypothesis that the Indus cities were probably built by ancient Tamilians, or Dravidians.