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Jainism in a Global Perspective
to invest in the development of this tirtha and have succeeded in reviving it. There are at present three main religious Jaina complexes in Hastinapur, all concentrated along a small street adjacent to the main road at one end of the village:
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1.
The two big Śvetambara temples managed by the Svetambara samiti connected with the Atma Vallabha Samarak in Delhi;
2. The Digambara temple;
3. The so-called Jambudvipa structure managed by the Digambaras and founded under the impulse of Āryikā Gyanamati.
Compared with the busy and polluted neighbouring towns of Meerut and Mavana, it is still a country-side place. A canal passing through the middle of the village irrigates the numerous fields of sugarcane. In the peaceful forest protected area not far from the Jaina temples, monkeys can often be seen playing. Apart from the three main religious complexes just mentioned, there are some small sanctuaries further in the wildness (the so-called nisiyams) where only daring pilgrims go: local people peddle many horrible stories, about the dangers of these spots! Thus, there is, undoubtedly, something attractive and ideally peaceful in the tirtha (if one is able to forget about the general poverty of the inhabitants, about all the shops closed down and the high rate of unemployment, all contrasting with the brightness of the Jaina complex).
In the last fifteen years, the celebration of the Akṣayatṛtiya festival in Hastinapur has become an important affaire, especially on the Svetambara side. Although some seem to regret it, the Digambaras do not attach so much importance to it and manifest their presence on different other occasions. This was helped by the fact that according to the oldest scriptures, Hastinapur is actually mentioned as the place where Rṣabhadeva broke his fast. Already in the seventies, the Jaina press started advertising the festival and incited people to go to Hastinapur for this yearly fastbreaking. However, the fact that no temple dedicated to the first Tirthankara existed in Hastinapur was probably felt as a shortcoming (the main Śvetämbara temple is dedicated to the 16th Jina, Śantinatha). Hence the real take off took place in 1978: in May of that year, a small temple located in the same compound as the main temple and built at the back of it was
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