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Śramana, Vol. 61, No. 2
April - June 10
POTENTIALS OF TOURISM WITH REFERENCE TO VARANASI AND ITS
JAINA PLACES
Vivek Tiwari*
(Varanasi is one of the oldest living cities of the world. It has confluence of all the three major religious traditions of IndiaHinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. That is why it is equally regarded as the most sacred place and pilgrimage for all three traditions. Thousands of tourists visit Varanasi every year. So far tourism is concerned, here in Varanasi Buddhist sites are prominent but Jaina sites are rather ignored. In this paper the author underlines the potentials of Jaina tourist sites sharing some novel ideas to promote Jaina tourism in Varanasi.]
Tourism in its different forms has been one of the most vital and essential human activity, which promotes mutual understanding and social harmony. In the true spirit of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” i.e. the world is a family, tourism starts with travel and travel brings movement and the movement is life essence (prāņavāna). The Upanişadic philosophy of caraiveti-caraiveti-caraiveti i.e. keep on moving, keep on moving; keep on moving , underlines the same principle. Tourism is a tremendous source of knowledge which has rightly been pointed out by St. Augustine who states that- the world is a book and those who do not travel, read its only one page. Through the promotion of tourism we can move forward to achieve the goal of World Peace also. In Indian context in every social, religious activity like marriage, pilgrimage, and performance of rituals, including sarskāras, we can very easily find the spirit of
*Research Scholar, Dept. of AIHC & Archaeology, Jiwaji Univ. Gwalior
