Samanar Hill near Madurai #jaintemple #jainculture #shorts

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Samanar Hills, also known as Samanar Malai or Amanarmalai or Melmalai, is a rocky stretch of hills located near Keelakuyilkudi village, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of Madurai city, Tamilnadu, India. 
These rocky hillocks are home to many Jain and Hindu monuments.

Samanar is derived from Sanskrit word sramana colloquially denoting any ascetic tradition. In contemporary Tamil Nadu, the word is equated with the Jain tradition. In Tamil language, malai means 'hill'. Thus, Samanar malai denotes a "Jain hill." The hill was also known as Melmalai (hills to the west), Amanarmalai (derived from Samanarmalai). In some Tamil texts, a Jain site named Thiruvuruvakam is mentioned, which scholars suggest is same as Samanar Hills.

it was the 8th-century Jain scholar Akalanka who founded Samanar Hills and nearby Madurai Jain basadis (settlements) after vanquishing the Buddhist scholars at Kanchipuram This led to Jains flourishing here between the 9th and 12-century, along with the establishment of a monastery.

Different parts of these rocky hills are called by different names and are home to a range of monuments dating between 2nd-century BCE and 12th-century CE. The south side of the extreme western end of this rocky hillocks is called the Samanar hills, and these containing a number of Samanar and Hindu monuments.The eastern parts of the same rocky hillocks include other important sites such as the Kanjamalai with the Thiruparankundram Jain cave and Hindu monuments (Umai Andar), the major rock cut Subramaniya Swamy temple (Kandan) and the 17th to 18th-century Islamic dargah for Sikandar Shah – the last Sultan of the Madurai Sultanate (1372–1377 CE).The Samanar hills contain many Jain and some Hindu monuments and inscriptions at several levels.