Jaina Temples, Two Jaina temples in the village of Tiruparuttikunram on the outskirts of Conjeevaram in the Deccan, described and fully illustrated in a monograph by T. N. Ramachandran (Bull. Madras Government Museum, N. S., l,pt. 3), the larger, early Chola with a mandapa in Vijayanagara style, the smaller in late Pallava style, supply an epitome of the main features of the chronological development of Dravidian temple architecture. Jainism, which was the most powerful religion in the south from very early times, is held to be the result of a partial attempt to Aryanise the Dravidian races. Conjeevaram has been identified with some certainty as Jina-Kanchi, where a regular colony of Jains seems to have settled early. The larger Jaina temple here studied is the biggest in the taluk, and nowhere else is the style found in so concise and well-balanced a form. The chronological evidence afforded by style is supported by inscriptions, in which the larger temple is peculiarly rich. The ceilings and veranda are adorned with paintings illustrating Jaina mythology. The smaller temple, and the older, is dedicated to Chandraprabha, the eighth tirthankara, and the larger to Vard-hamana, the twenty-fourth tirthankara. Local tradition says that the two owe their existence to a Pallava king and that he built them at the instance of two Jaina teachers, who lived in the village. While the first part of the tradition is in accordance with the style of architecture, the latter part is evidently incorrect, as an inscription in the temple shows that the two teachers were not contemporaneous with the Pallavas, but flourished six centuries after them, that is, in the fourteenth century.