A Pilgrimage in Gujarat. By Jayant Doshi

(On my recent visit to India – 2003 – I had an opportunity to travel through Gujarat. The facts given on places of religion are based on information given to me, and I am reporting the facts as I was given, and have not been

verified by me.)

We left Mumbai by car. It was quite early in the morning. Last time I had travelled by car to Gujarat was in 1971, and I knew what the road conditions could be like. Over the years I had not seen much changes or improvements. What impressed me very much this time was the extensive road building all along the way, and how fast India was changing. Huge banners across the roads quoted the aim of the current Prime Minister to connect all the state capitals by good roads. The speed with which roads were being constructed showed that the dream would be fulfilled in the near future. However, while good quality, four lane roads were being constructed, and the traffic levels increasing at alarming rate, the driving manners and the standard of driving have a long way to go. I had the opportunity to drive some of the way. It was common to see rickshaws, bicycles, scooters and even bull carts on the road where legally they are all banned. But what shocked me most was to see a car coming right at me on the wrong side of the dual carriageway. Even though huge barriers have been built along the dual carriageway, it did not stop the drivers to take a short cut on the wrong side of the dual carriageway.

The heavy lorry traffic on the road, and the road works all along the route, meant that we reached our destination much later then we had anticipated. Ider, our first stop, is a small village in northeast Gujarat. This is where Shrimat Rajchandra read the Dravya Sanghra (an important Jain text), and then explained this complex text to seven munis on the mountain. The munis, themselves well read and knowledgeable, bowed to Shrimad, an ordinary person, to respect his immense depth of knowledge. On top of the mountain, a temple and an ashram, called Rajchandra Vihar, have been built as a memorial of this event. It contains a small marble statue of Shrimad with his turban (paghdi), which was seen by Shrimad himself. All his pictures and statutes are without a turban, and in that respect this statute is unique. Such an important place of historical importance lacked any information or

literature for visitors who were not much informed about Shrimad and his work. Even a first edition book by Shrimad was lying on the shelf, and I was told that the pages had become brittle with age, and they had no know how on their preservation. Other important scriptures were kept in a cupboard, but with little action taken, more because of lack of technology, to preserve them.

Half way down the mountain, off the main track, another marble temple has been constructed on the rock on which Shrimad

sat and gave his interpretation of Dravya Sanghra to the seven munis. The little Temple has a replica of the scene carved out on the walls. Under the huge rock, and below the temple, there is a cave, where a small room has been built to preserve some of his artefacts. As the temple is slightly off the track, through some rough patch, it appeared that the temple was not visited by many pilgrims.

We then visited the village of Ider to find the Parsavnath Temple. The village, with small alleyways, had literally a jain temple after almost every house, and we took some time to find the right temple. This was the temple where Shrimad read the Dravya Sanghra. It is said, I was told, that as soon as he set foot in the temple, he remembered his past lives, including when he was with Lord Mahavir as his disciple. I am told that when Shrimad came to this temple he remembered the important Jain scriptures of Samaysar, Atma nu Sasan and Tatvatta Sutra, and that he understood the Dravya Sanghra before even looking at the script.

We were shown the Dravya Sanghra, which Shrimad had read. The scripture is written in gold ink with a thorn. It is in good condition right now, but I was told that the temple did not have

the knowhow to preserve these scriptures. About ten cupboards were filled with thousands of scriptures, and it is felt that all this valuable literature will be lost unless steps are taken to preserve them. We were also shown some scriptures written in Tamil written on 2” wide and 20” long papers. Some American Jains had been to this temple, and made some records of the scriptures. Thousands of such scriptures must exist all over India, and it is time someone took the initiative and created a central library where all the scriptures could be collected and preserved for posterity.

Such a collection could be very valuable for research students, who could one day give us the

wisdom of these scriptures. While the Indian government would certainly support any such initiative, it is important that the Jain community take the initiative and create such a central library before those scriptures are lost in time to come. If one temple has such a large collection of scriptures, one can guess how many thousands more must be around the country.

Outside the village, a Jain temple, which is a replica of the original Pawapuri, has been built only two years back. It is built near a lake (while the original one in Bihar is built on a lake itself) and the huge complex has provision for visitors to stay. It seems that when it comes to building a temple, there is no shortage of funds, as all the new structures are built to the best standards and money spent lavishly.

Our next stop was Taranga, which is another important Jain centre. While the small village had many temples, we went to see the two important temples. The Svetamber and Digamber

temples stood back to back and seemed to be competing with each other to attract visitors. The first temple looked grand, built in red stones, and had lots of carvings and statutes on walls, ceilings and pillars. Digamber temple was less impressive, but still very large, and lots of improvements were taking place. A huge statute of Bahubali, a replica of the original Sravan Belgoda, is under construction, and this is surrounded with lots of other statutes and marble. There were more temples of importance on the mountain, but we decided to skip them.

We drove to the famous holiday hill station of Mount Abu, and the home to many famous temples. I had a wonderful walk in the mountains in the morning, absorbing the morning fresh air, enjoying the cool weather, and exploring the various tracks and viewpoints on the mountain. Our next stop was the famous Jain Temples of Delwada, where the temples are

between 500 to 1000 years old. The main complex had five temples in one compound. The white marble used in construction seemed to be getting discoloured, ravaged by weather and pollution. Many a Jain temples have taken the design of this temple as a prototype, including our Jain temple in Leicester. The carvings and statutes on the walls, ceilings and pillars were impressive. In a scramble to have their names immortalized, donors have built hundreds of small temples housing various Tirthankars.

On the way we stopped at Gabbar where a small temple has been built on top of the mountain. At the top of the mountain, some gas emission from the rocks is kept alight day and night throughout the year, and this natural phenomenon has achieved the status of deity, and become the centre of the temple. There are a thousand steps to reach the top, and faith in that phenomenon draws thousands of people on this mountain. A very small temple on top of the mountain was crowded with lots of worshippers.

Our next stop was the famous Ambaji temple, a colossal marble structure of great beauty with some intricate wonderful carvings on

walls and ceilings. It had a caged queuing system, which went for over a mile, and reflected on the number of visitors the temple must be attracting in peak times. From Ambaji we drove on to Rajkot. Next day we visited the Shrimad temple in Rajkot which is built where he achieved Nirvana. We also visited Vavania, the village where Shrimad was born. The village is now deserted, and the house is being reconstructed. From Rajkot, I went to Jetpur, a dusty, village type of thriving industrial town where I have lots of past memories. On the outskirts is a Shiv temple surrounded by gardens which I visited to remind me of my old days.

On the flat lands of Saurastra, a part of Gujarat, lie the towering mountain of Girnar, which has seen many a war, and has been the favourite of many a poet. Next day, early in the morning we started our climb to the topof this historical mountain, which has many old temples. Proper steps have been built all the way to the top, but the walk is quite steep. A total of almost ten thousand steps took us over five hours to climb. On the way, and at the top, all one could see are temple after temple. Some very colossal Jain temples, and domes with intricate mosaic work, cover big plots of flat land on the mountain. Thousands of tourists on the mountain come entirely with the religious devotion, though a few stray foreigners could be discerned in the crowds. Coming down those steps seems easy, but is a

great strain on the knees, and I had to walk very slowly as my knees started hurting.

After Girnar we went to Rajmot for the night, and next morning we drove to Palitana, one of the important pilgrimage sites for the Jains. On the way we stopped at Songadh, the large complex and the ashrams, built by Kanjimuni, who rebelled against the Jain religious practices, and formed a separate sect of Jain religion. It had four large halls for prayer. The important scripture of Jain religion, Samaysar, has been written on walls of the two halls. The walls are covered from

ceiling to the floor level, and would take days to read. While the complex is huge, and must have cost a fortune, it seemed that the ashram was hardly being used since the passing away of the founder.

Palitana, another famous mountain, which is the important pilgrimage for the Jains, is a smaller mountain compared with Girnar, but it also has steps constructed for walking. The mountain is ideally covered with lots of old and new Jain temples, and new ones are being built wherever any space is available. Palitana, or otherwise known as Satrunja, is visited by literally millions of devout followers, and have huge funds at their disposal. What shocked me was that no conveniences or toilets were available either at the base or anywhere on the mountain. We had to go to one of the rest houses to use the toilets, and we had to walk over a hundred yards without shoes to go to the toilets. It is a shame that such an important place of pilgrimage does not ahve such simple facilities.

We drove on the Bhavnagar, a city that has built its prosperity on ship breaking, diamond cutting and oil and gas fields. Bhavnagar has established supremacy in ship breaking in the world, while it has become a major centre for diamond cutting in India, and perhaps in the world. This prosperity seems to be seeping through the town, as lot of development seemed to be taking place all around. Next day we went to Ayodhyapuram, a small village nearby. A huge Jain temple with an even larger complex is being built there. Financed by a Kenya Jain, the 300 ton marble was carved out mountain near Jaipur in Rajasthan, and transported by a trailer with

125 wheels. All along the route, thousands of people prayed and worshiped, and religious ceremonies were performed. That twenty-five feet tall marble has been carved into a huge statute of Adinath, one of the Tirthankars of Jainism. The statute has two large diamond earrings, covering the ears, and a huge gold crown. The temple is being built around the statute now. A big rest house for visitors has already been built. The compound has a big statute near the gates, and other monuments of buildings are also planned. I am told that some people believe that building a temple may give them an easy route to heaven.

This completed our pilgrimage, and we drove back to Mumbai. Such a pilgrimage would normally create feelings of religious fervour, and devotion. But I had feelings of sadness and disquiet. When so many historical temples were already there, it was disturbing to see so many new ones being built. I talked with a young man, and he voiced the

thinking of younger generation. When there already are so many temples, why are we spending millions on creating new ones? Could that money not money not be put to better use? I could not agree more with his views. Religion appears to be the centre of life in India, and at times it appears that it is exploited to create an industry. Temples are built and unlimited money is spent to create the best, but hardly any thought is put to maintain that monument, or no consideration is given to the convenience of millions who will come to worship in the same temple. If names of donors were not allowed on the walls I wonder if all these temples would be built If the belief that building a temple is the surest way to heaven did not exist, I wonder if so many temples would be constructed.

(website : www.jayantdoshi.yolasite.com - - - email jayubhai@btinternet.com )