Indian Antiquary Vol 02

SR No.: 032494
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 428
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 391

SATRUNJAYA HILL.
DECEMBER, 1873.]
ascending the hill he obtained the victory (jaya) over his enemy (satru)-sin." Tod, professing to have extracted it from the Mahatmya also, gives the following legend: "In distant ages Sukha Raja ruled in Pâlitânâ. By the aid of magic, his younger brother assumed his appearance and took possession of the royal cushion. The dispossessed prince wandered about the forests, and during twelve years daily 'poured fresh water from the stream on the image of Sidnâth,' who, pleased with his devotion, gave him victory (jaya) over his foe (satru), and in gratitude he enshrined the god upon the mount, hence called Satruñjaya. The hill must therefore have been originally dedicated to Siva, one of whose chief epithets is Sidnâ tha, as lord of the ascetics, a title never given, I believe, to Adinatha, the first of the Jainas."+
Vimaladri,-height of purification; Pundarika-parvata, or Hill of Pundarika, the principal disciple of Rishabhanatha; Siddhikshetra, Siddhâdri, and Siddhabhûbhrit,-Hill of the Holy land; Sura Saila, Rock of the gods; Punyar'a si,-bestower of virtue; Muktigeha, place of beatitude; Mahâtirtha, the great place of pilgrimage; Sarva Kâm ad a, realizing all desires; Prithvipîth a, the crown of the earth; and Pâtâlamâla, having its foundation in the lower regions.‡
"Whatever purity," says the Mahatmya, "may be acquired by prayers, penances, vows, charity, and study, in other artificial tirthas, cities, groves, hills, &c., tenfold more is acquired in Jaina tirthas, a hundred-fold more at the chaityas of the Jambú-tree, a thousand-fold more at the everlasting Dhátaki-tree, at the lovely chaitya of Pushkaraḍvipa, at the mountain Anjana. Yet ten-fold more still is obtained at the Nandisvara, Kundaladri, Manushottaraparvata. § In proportion, ten thousand times more at the Vaibhara, Sametâdri, Vâitâḍhya, Merû, Raivata, T and Ashtapada.*
Weber, über das Catr. Mahat. p. 17.
+ Travels in Western India, pp. 277, 278.
To these the Mahatmya adds Mahabala, SriyabDada, Parvatendra, Subhadra, Dridhasakti, Akarmaka, Sasvata, Pushpadanta, Maha padma, Prabhobpada, Kailasa, and Kahiti manḍanamandana (I. 331-334).
§ Colebrooke, Essays, vol. II. p. 223; Asiat. Res. vol. IX. p. 320; Wilson, Vishnu Purana, p. 200.
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Infinitely more, however, is already obtained by the mere sight of Satruñjaya. Last, it cannot be told how much is acquired by devoting oneself to the worship of it." + Elsewhere the author exclaims, "I have heard, O ye gods! from the mouth of Srimat Simandhara Svami, when once I went to the Kshetra Mahavideha: Any, and ever so great a sinner, by worshipping Sri Satruñjaya, is
absolved from sin and becomes a partaker of perfection."
From Pálitânâ to the foot of the hill there is a very straight and level stretch of broad clean road, lined on either side with banian or bar trees, and other species of the ficus tribe. It has at intervals kundas and bavlis, reservoirs and wells, of pure water, excavated by Jaina votaries. At the foot of the hill the ascent begins with a wide flight of steps, guarded on either side by a statue of an elephant. At this place there are many little canopics or cells, a foot and a half to three feet square, open only in front, and each having in its floor a marble slab carved with the representation, in bas-relief, of the soles of two feet (charana)-very flat ones -and generally with the toes all of one length. A little behind where the ball of the great toe ought to be, there is a diamond-shaped mark, divided into four smaller figures by two crosslines, from the end of one of which a waved line is drawn to the front of the foot. Round the edges of the slab there is usually an inscription in Devanagari characters. These cells are numerous all the way up the hill, and a large group of them is found on the south-west corner of it, behind the temple of Adísvara Bhaga vána :-they are the temples erected by poorer Sravakas or Jainas, who-unable to afford the expense of a complete temple, with its hall and sanctuary enshrining a marble murti or imagemanifest their devotion to their creed by erecting these miniature temples over the charana of their Jinas or Arhats.
The hill is in many places excessively steep,
One of the hills surrounding R &jagriha, the ancient capital of Magadha or S. Bihar. On the top of it and other neighbouring hills there are Jaina temples, and the cave occupied by the great Buddha is still to be seen in one of the hills. See before, vol. I. p. 70.
Mount Girnåra.
Colebrooke, Essays, vol. II. p. 208; Asiat. Res. vol.IX. p. 305.-The same as Kailasa-Hemachandra, Abhi. dhana Chintamani, 1028.
+ Satrunjaya Mahat. I.341-346; Weber, pp. 22 and 60,61.