Armamalai: A visit to the ancient Jain caves
Overview: When I was scanning through Google Maps, I happened to find this amazing ancient Jain caves marked in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu. We quickly planned this trip and started at around 6am from Bengaluru. We stopped at A2B near Krishnagiri for breakfast and proceeded towards Vaniyambadi. We followed the directions towards Vaniyambadi town and crossed a few villages. We visited an old temple at Thennampattu which had a Shiva Linga inside the sanctum, but the temple is now being renovated. The temple is marked as a Jain temple in Google Maps. We followed Google maps to a non-descript village only to be lost, and even the locals did not have a clue where the caves were. We later turned back and found a small narrow lane leading towards the hill. Luckily, a few people helped us with the directions. We parked out vehicle near a house and started walking as guided by the villagers. Fortunately, a couple of enthusiastic small kids accompanied us till the caves. It is a pretty eas...