Arhat Parshva and Dharnendra Nexus

SR No.: 002108
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M A Dhaky
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 204
Language: English, Hindi
Classification: Book_English, Articles, History, Art, E000, & E001
File Size: 8 MB

Page 161

THE TĪRTHAS OF PĀRŚVANĀTHA IN GUJARAT
M. A. Dhaky
The early agamic and related commentaries composed from the late sixth to the ninth century refer to no place as a tirtha sacred to Jina Pārsvanātha in western India including Gujarat. The ancient sites then very famous as tīrthas within the presentday province of Gujarat were Ujjayantagiri (Girnār Hills), Satruñjayagiri (Setrunjo), and Prabhāsa, the first was sacred to Arhat Ariştanemi, the second to Jina Rşabha, and the third to Jina Candraprabha, Pārsvanātha thus not figuring in their context as the principal deity. Likewise, the temples sacred to Jinas that existed in Valabhi (ancient capital of the Maitrakas in Saurāṣtra) before its destruction in A.D. 784 did not include that of Jina Pārsva.' It was only in the medieval period that one hears of some sites sacred to that Jina: these were Stambhanaka (Thambhaņā), Sankhapura (Sankheśvara), Carūpa, Serişaka (Serisā) and a few others, the first two being far more famous in the past, the second also so in the present times, than the remaining sites.? For their images were believed to be endowed with miraculous powers including the cure of leucoderma by bathing in the lustral water of the images of the Jinas concerned. The myths relating to the origin of the first two tirthas have been incorporated in the Kalapradipa of Jinaprabha Sūri (c. A.D. 1333)}; these are best left to the faithful. Historically speaking, the following facts about the tirthas concerned are available in the medieval and late medieval svetāmbara literature. The other sites sacred to Pārsvanātha were Ajāharā (Ajārā), Ghoghā, and Mangalpura (Maggrol), all located on Saurāṣtra's western and south-eastern sea-board. And in Anahillapāțaka, the capital of Gujarat, was the famous temple of PañcāsaraPārsvanātha.
Stambbana - Pārsvanātba
A head of an image of Pārsva had been exposed near a tree in the environs of the village Stambhana situated on the bank of River Sedhi near Cambay or Khambhāt. The exhumed image subsequently was set up in a shrine built for it and was consecrated by Abhayadeva Sūri of Candra-gaccha, the famous commentator on the nine anga-works of the āgama literature of the northern Nirgrantha tradition inherited by the Svetāmbara sect. The date of consecration has been reported to be A.D. 1053 (or 1063). Abhayadeva Sūri next composed a stotra in Apabhramśa in praise of the Stambhana-Pārsvanātha, the psalm famous as Jaya Tihuana-thotta." Thereafter