Ancient Jaina Hymns

Author(s): Charlotte Krause
Publisher: SCIndia Oriental Institute Ujain

Page 98

ANCIENT JAINA HYMNS
Fort Mandu, Mt. Abu, Falodhi, Sankheshvara, Prabhas Patan, Mandasor, Charup, Ahmedabad under the ancient Hindu name of Karaṇāvati, Mt. Sametshikhar, Cambay, Palanpur, Taranga Hill, Arasan, Junagadh, Idar, Dabhoi, Sachor, Karakal. Others of the places mentioned as tirthas, are now not much in prominence, but do possess Jina temples, and some of them also a Jaina population, such as Dhanera, Kodinar, Dahidro, Jiraval, Champaner, Jalor, Panchasar, Nana, Tharad, Vavipur, Kasindra, Nibeda, Chandur, Bahadpur, Bayad, Sami, Dholka, Majadra, Modhera, Dahod. Some places of both these types as, e. g., Fort Mandu, Arasan, Champaner, Jalor, Panchasar, Dholka, were once flourishing and celebrated centres of Jaina culture, whose former grandeur can be inferred from literary references or architectural remains.
Another type of places is represented by names like Taxila, Mathura, Ayodhya, Paithan, Daulatabad, Patna, Nasik, Dvaraka, Parwatam, all of which are still flourishing and well-known, but seem to have lost their association with Jainism, which is amply testified for the past.
A further category of ancient tirthas mentioned in our poem is formed by places which have lost both their association with Jainism and their economical importance, their very sites being identifiable now by nothing but either fields of ruins with here and there an epigraphical testimonial, or with the half-hearted help of the modern names of otherwise unsuspect villages built over their remains. Such places are Ahicchattra, Nagadraha, Śrävasti, Rājanagara, Soparaka, Tejalapura, Munḍasthala, Serisa, and the tirthas of Sindh. Entire oblivion seems to envelop those tirthas which our poem mentions as existing in the
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