Gingee Fort - Sri Ranganatha Temple

Sri Ranganatha Temple

Any account of Gingee should include a description of the rock-cut shrine of Singavaram, situated about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the fortress on a fifth hill called Singavaram hill. It is a unique Vishnu temple. The deity of the shrine is Ranganatha. Ranganatha is seen reclining on the serpent with his head turned to a side. The expression on his face is benign and charming. The Gingee Ranganathan is ranked as one of the most beautiful Vishnu idols anywhere.

The place where the Singavaram rock cut exists seems to have been originally a centre of Jainism. Several small and large Jain rock cuts and monoliths are found around the temple. Gingee, hence, has emerged as an important surviving link of the Tamil Jain tradition. Singavaram hill is visited both by Hindu and Jain pilgrims.

According to legend, it is the original image of Ranganatha from the famous Srirangam temple, which was taken away, from Srirangam and hidden in Gingee, for the sake of safety, during the plundering of Srirangam at the hands of the Muslim invader Malik Kafur. Ranganatha is said to have been the tutelary Lord of Gingee and the personal deity (iṣṭa-devatā) of Raja Desingh. There is an underground tunnel that connects the Rajagiri fortress with the temple and is supposed to have been used by Raja Desingh and his queen to visit the temple unobserved. The existence of the tunnel itself is an indicator of the authenticity of the image. The fact that the idol was hidden among the rocks in a discarded Jain rock cut cave and was being worshipped unobserved by the public is enough proof of the idol being a very ancient and important one.

This tunnel is supposed to actually connect two towns, the great and little Gingee, surrounded by a wall. This wall is three 3 miles (4.8 km)in circumference and encloses the two towns and five mountains of rugged rocks on the summit of which were built five strong forts. The fifth mountain is Singavaram hill - in addition to the four already mentioned forts, namely, Rajagiri, Krishnagiri, Chandrayan Durg and Chakkili Durg. According to E. Scott Waring, Great Gingee referred to the whole area including Singavaram, and little Gingee was very likely to be Gingee proper, i.e., the area covered by four other mountains. There were two separate towns known as Sheo Gingee (Siva Gingee) and Vishnu Gingee (Vishnu Gingee - the latter being regarded by him as a popular and flourishing town) surrounded by walls of considerable circumference. The court of Sheo Gingee was formed into a citadel with basements and battlements and consequently thinly inhabited; Vishnu Gingee was flourishing and the resort of a large number of pilgrims, hence it can with great probability be identified with Singavaram. A visit to Gingee would be incomplete without a visit to Singavaram to see the reclining Vishnu and the Jain rock cuts.