Jain centre of south India - Kankagiri-Maleyur

Kanakagiri hill is situated just 3 km. from present village, Maleyur in the recently created district of Chamarajanagar in the southern state of Karnataka, India. Jain monuments and population are found in numerous villages like Maleyur, Harave, Kelasur, Mugur, Ummattur, Kuderu, Tagadurur, Echiganahalli and Chamarajanagar, all situated within 50 kilometer radius from Kanakagiri hill. From the city of Mysore, Kanakagiri can be reached by car or bus in this way. SStart from Mysore to Nanjanagud to Maleyur, and then travel a kilometer southwest to Kanakagiri hill.From Tamilnadu, it can be reached through Ooty to Gundalpet and Nanjanagud to Maleyur.From the state of Kerala, it can be reached via Wynad district to Gundalpet and Nanjanagud.This geographical location of Kanakagiri, thus has played an important role in religio-cultural history of the region where three southern states –Karnata,Kerala and Tamilunadu meet.

Devachandra(C.E.1770-1841), who may be considered as the first Indian said to have undertaken about writing the history of the Nation in his Kannada work Rajavalikathasara, has also written Pujyapadacharite, in Kannada(Life-story of Pujyapada) which associates him with the sacredness of Kanakagiri kshetra.

The legend of Kanakagiri, as a Jain tirtha/ksherta, appears to go back to a remote past as referred to in later literary works, but no historic records are available in support of the claim. Nevertheless, history of Kanakagiri as a spiritual and religious center of Jainism, based on literary sources and later records, confirm that Kanakagiri regained its tirtha/kshetra fame in early medieval times having associated with Achrya Pujyapada and his nephew and disciple Nagarjuna(c.464-524 C.E.). According to Jyothi Prasad Jain, professor of History, Pujyapada was “a prominent religious head, a great yogi, a sublime mystique and a brilliant poet, a reputed scholar, an eminent author and a master of branches of learning.” The rasayoga, an ancient science of alchemy, exploits at the hill by Pujyapuda and Nagarjuna have been referred to in a later stone inscription assigned to eleventh C.E.It refers to the hill as Kanakachala, meaning hill of gold-kanaka(gold), achala(hill).
Visit Kanakagiri and explore the culture of south India and south Indian Jainism.