KOZHIKODE: The magnificent Jain temple here, which is over 2,000 years old, bears witness to the existence of the Jain community in the city between the 6th and 9th centuries. With Kalicund Paraswnath installed as the main deity, the temple draws Jain followers from around the country.
Various sculptures of gods and other archaeological relics were unearthed during an excavation at the temple site. According to historians, Jain monks entered Kerala through three routes — Mangalore, Wayanad and Kongunadu comprising Salem and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
“The temple, kno-wn among natives as Aryan Trikovil, was built on the site of an ancient temple having a circular sanctum sanctorum and granite base,” said Keerthy Sanghvi, a member of the Jain community here. It is said that the relics of the old Digambara temple are still in the vaults of the present temple.
“No other Jain temples in the country have the same authentic architectural uniqueness as this one because most of them were renovated or reconstructed,” he said.
There are two temples in the same compound, of which one is almost 2,000 years old and the other was constructed in 1917. The detailed wooden sculptures in the old temple represent the iconographic connection between the Hindu and Jain temple architecture.
According to Jain inhabitants in the region, the present temple was erected at the site of an ancient Jain temple that was converted into a Hindu temple in the 9th century.
The Kozhikode Zamorin returned the temple to the Jains after repeated appeals. The current structure has undergone a series of modifications over the ages and is presently run by the remaining 130 Jain families in the region.
