Jainism in Bihar

SR No.: 011022
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: P C Roy Choudhary
Publisher: P C Roy Choudhary Patna
Publication Year: 1956
Total Pages: 140
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 11 MB

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Sudarsan by the side of Agam Kuan is a sacred place for the Jains.
Pawapuri which appears to be a corruption of Apapapuri, the town without any sins, is a great place of pilgrimage for the Jains throughout India. It is a village in Biharsharif subdivision nine miles south of Bihar town. It is also within a mile of the main road from Patna to Ranchi.
J. D. Beglar in his report of tour through Bengal Provinces (Vol. VIII, Archaeological Survey of India) has the following description of Pawapuri :
"Pawapuri is a small village close to and about 3 miles north of Giriyak, and is a great place of pilgrimage for the Jains, who have here two temples, one in the middle of the tank and connected with the land by a long causeway, the other in the village. Both of these are of very recent date; the one in the village appears, however, to stand on the site of an old temple. When I first saw it, it had not been quite finished, but it has since been completed. The statues may be ancient. There certainly are some ancient statues here, and I saw several about the temple in the village. They were slightly defective and consequently not worshipped; but I was not allowed to see the ones that are worshipped (Captain Kittoe has noticed this place in Journal, Asiatic Society, Bengal, for 1847, p. 955). This is said to have been the place where Mahavira died. On the banks of the tank in which stands the temple is a round chabutra with smaller chaubutras rising up in steps in its centre; a pillar occupies the centre of the whole. I could not ascertain what it was meant to represent, and I was not allowed to go up and see for myself. In the map which accompanied Mr. Broadley's paper in the journal, Asiatic Society, for 1872, Pawapuri is wrongly placed to the west of
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