Why a community has undertaken a decade-long walk across Tamil Nadu

In 2014, a group of Tamil Jains belonging to the Digambar sect, conducted a walk to the neglected Jain monument in Uranithangal in the Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu. Since there was no proper way to the ruined rock shelter atop the hill, the walkers had to make their own way by clearing rocks and the thickly populated thorny shrubs enroute. When a group of Jain scholars and activists organised the walk more than a decade ago, little did they know that their initiative would culminate in a movement to help protect the neglected Jain monuments across Tamil Nadu today.

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Conceived by heritage activist A Sridharan, the first Ahimsa Walk to Uranithangal evoked tremendous response. A decade has passed, and the group still conducts Ahimsa Walks to the remote villages of Tamil Nadu to create awareness among people about history and also to reclaim and protect the neglected ancient Jain monuments. The group has conducted 103 such walks to the ruined and neglected Jain sites across Tamil Nadu so far. The last one was held on March 16 to Pichivakkam, a village in Parandur (Kancheepuram district) where a granite sculpture of Mahavira, the 24th and last Tirthankara of Jainism, was found while digging for a trench near a temple.

People gathered for the first Ahimsa Walk that was held in 2014.

The idea of the walk is to create awareness among the local people about ‘Ahimsa’, the core of Jainism, and the significance of ancient sculptures and monuments in the social and cultural life of human beings. There are many ancient Jain sculptures and monuments in Tamil Nadu that are not under the control of either the Archaeology Survey of India (ASI) or the Tamil Nadu state archaeology department. The group conducts Ahimsa Walks to the ruined, neglected Jain sites with the participation of local villagers once every month.

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The walk here doesn’t end with it as the event includes other meaningful activities as well. A day before the walk takes place, a team will visit the place and inform the villagers about the upcoming event. To attract villagers to the event, the organisers donate notebooks to students who belong to the economically backward communities. A brochure in Tamil about the site and its historical importance and how to protect them is also be distributed to the villagers. The scholars in the group then conduct awareness classes. The group also takes care of minor maintenance and preservation of the site. For example, if an ancient sculpture of a Tirthankara lies neglected, the group will construct a shelter for it. Many such shelters have been built at various places across Tamil Nadu after the Ahimsa Walk.

An awareness drive being held as part of the Ahimsa Walk at Jain Caves in Vallimalai Vellore.

Sugumaran Dhananjayan, who has participated in more than 70 Ahimsa Walks, said each walk was unique in its own way. “Whenever we talk about the ancient sculptures or rock shelters to the villagers, they try to understand the importance of them with great care. Many come forward and assure us that they would protect them. And in many cases, they did what they promised to us. We can’t protect a monument without the help of the local people out there so we try our best to get their support in the beginning of the walk itself. Ahimsa Walk is a success today and the credit goes to the villagers, without whom we wouldn’t be able to achieve the goal,” said Dhananjayan, a former hydraulic engineer with the government of UAE.

A ruined sculpture of Mahavira found in Pichivakkam near Parandur.

Even though the villagers generally express their willingness, the team at times faces strange questions from them. “We also get strange questions thrown our way from the villagers. On a recent walk, we were asked by a politician in a village near Madurai that why do we want to promote a ‘new’ religion in his village. We politely told him that we are not here to promote Jainism, and our intention is to preserve our ancient sculptures and monuments because they are part of our social and cultural history,” he said.

It was while participating in a session of the Green Walk, an informal group of people who take off-the-beaten track to learn about the neglected heritage monuments in and around Madurai, that we got the idea for Ahimsa Walk, said Rajendra Prasad, a member of the Tamil Nadu State Minorities Commission and an active participant of the Ahimsa Walk since its launch. “We use Ahimsa Walk not only to create awareness among people about ruined and neglected Jain sculptures and monuments in the remote villages but also as a movement to raise voices against real estate lobbies who encroach upon the ancient rock shelters of Tamil Nadu. We protested the encroachments in Onampakkam Jain Caves (Chengalpattu) and recently in Madurai using the same tag. The walk we started more than a decade ago has become a movement now,” said Prasad, who has participated in more than 75 Ahimsa Walks so far.

Jainism in Tamil is called ‘samanam’ and the Tamil Jains are called ‘samanar’. There are two sects in Jainism: Svetambara and Digambara. The Tamil Jains belong to the Digambara sect. There are around 25,000 Tamil Jains living in various parts of Tamil Nadu today. The religion, however, was popular across Tamil Nadu if you go by the abandoned and neglected Jain monuments across the state. In 2018, Rajendra Prasad with K Ajithadoss, a Jain scholar, published a guide to 128 Jain temples and monuments in the state. Titled “Tamil Nadu Digamber Jain Temple Tour Guide”, the book has basic details about the temples and how to plan a visit to them. Lack of awareness among the Jains about the sites was the reason that provoked the scholars to bring out the guide. There are more than 130 Jain monuments and temples across Tamil Nadu, but 80% of them face serious threats due to vandalism and lack of care. Even though the ones maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) follow some basic courtesy to the tourists, others including those under the control of the Tamil Nadu state archaeology department lack basic facilities for those who visit the sites.

“I am happy that I could visit many sites after the launch of Ahimsa Walk. It is a great opportunity for a person like me to experience the greatness of our history. Each walk was a great experience,” said Sasikala, who has been part of more than 40 Ahimsa Walks so far. The interaction with the villagers, according to Sasikala, is significant as it was through these people only we can protect and preserve those ancient monuments.A single visit to a monument, however, doesn't serve the purpose at times. “Even though we have covered most of the important sites in Tamil Nadu, some sites need repeated walks, particularly when any small maintenance of renovation is on,” said Rajendra Prasad.

The organisers of Ahimsa Walk don’t count the numbers of the participants. Why? “We don’t believe in numbers. We conduct the Ahimsa Walk for a cause. This is not an initiative to promote any religion or a particular system of belief. We need to protect and preserve our great heritage, and we will continue the walk,” he added.