CHENNAI: Hundreds of villagers throng a cave temple in western Tamil Nadu every year, not knowing that the Goddess Amma idol they worship over the last two decades is in fact a sculpture of Mahavira dating to the seventh century.

The transformation of the Jain sculpture into an idol of 'Aadhali Amman,' located on the fringes of the Aliyar dam near Puliyankandi village in Coimbatore district, has been found by chance by an exploration team of students belonging to the Government College of Fine Arts here.

K T Gandhirajan, an art historian who led the team along with his compatriot K Natarajan, told PTI that the upper portion of Mahavira sculpture, found in the 'padmasana' pose, had been converted into a Goddess by creating breasts and ornaments in cement.

The eyes were painted to make it look like that of a female deity and the sculpture was wrapped in silk sari. The temple was complete with 'trishuls' (tridents) planted behind the deity and a priest conducting pujas every day. Gandhirajan said the team was on a mission of documenting ruined monuments and pre-historical rock paintings when it spotted a cave on the edge of the Aliyar dam in May last.

Trekking for a distance of about three km, they found a 4.5 feet Amman idol in granite beneath a huge rock. However, the presence of a stone bed, characteristic of Jain monuments, raised doubts and on close scrutiny it was found that it was of Mahavira, the last Tirthankara of Jainism, he said.