________________
Shuddhi Prayog. It so happend that one of the five farmers who stood firm upto the last got tenancy rights over 20 Bighas of land as a result of this Shuddhi Prayog. Revenue entries were accordingly made in his favour. But thereafter one agriculturist raised a dispute that 6 Bighas out of these twenty Bighas were actually cultivated by him for number of years and hence for these six Bighas his name should have been entered as a tenant. This claimant of six Bighas was the man of temple authorities and the case of the farmer, whose name was entered as the tenant of all the twenty Bighas, was that the claimant was cultivating these six Bighas only since last two years and he was allowed to do so because the temple authorities had compelled him to part with these six Bighas.
The leaders of the Shuddhi Prayog were faced with two contrary claims. They felt that if the claimant of six Bighas was cultivating since many years, then irrespective of his friendly association with temple authorities, he should get this land as a tenant. The claimant laid his claim against the farmer who stood firm during the whole movement of Shuddhi Prayog and had won his case after a great sacrifice. So the whole village was anxiously watching how the leaders of Shuddhi Prayog were solving this problem against their own man.
By this time the leaders of Shuddhi Prayog had developed good contacts with many reliable persons of the village including the labour class employed during season for field work. They made discreet inquiries from all of them and were satistied that the claimant was cultivating these six Bighas since last many years but had sufficiently harassed the original farmer as a man of temple authorities.
The leaders of the Shuddhi Prayog tried to explore true facts from the original farmer but he did not go beyond agreeing that the claimant was cultivating the six Bighas since last four years
79
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org