HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDS :

The village varichchiyur lies at the 12 kms distance on Madurai - sivaaganga main road. Very near to this village, at a distance of 1 kms a small hill, located it is known as kunraththur hill, named after a nearby village kunraththur. In this hill, there is a natural cavern in which rock beds were excavated for the residence of Jain monks.

On the top of this natural cave three brahmi inscriptions are engraved. But due to natural reasons they are highly mutilated. Among these, two inscriptions give some abrupt informations, but the last one mentions that this stone cave was made by and individual Ilanathan by name. These inscriptions are dated to 1st century A.D.