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• Various views of Kailash • The Quest for Ashtapad • New Technique to discover Ashtapad Palace-Temple • Geological perspective at Kailash area in search for Ashtapad site
Photo Gallery Narendra Bhandari Rajmal Jain
K. K. Sharma
Introduction The main objective of the Ashtapad project is to locate the site and to find the ruins of Jain temple or palace built near Mt. Kailash by King Bharat - the son of Bhagwan Rushabhdev who was the first Jain Tirthankar. We do not know the exact period of the birth and Nirvana of Rushabhdev or when the temple was built or when it disappeared. Details from scriptures were presented in Ashtapad Granth I. The articles in this chapter discuss the calculations carried out to determine the Rushabhdev era and to estimate as to how and when the temple disappeared. The calculations applied to date estimates that the Rushabhdev era existed around 14000 to 10000 years before present and temple may have been destroyed around 1550 AD due to glacial and seismic activity in the region and its ruins are now scattered and buried in the area. These above periods are based on assumptions and do not match with the religious scriptures. One should understand that we are using these assumptions for research purposes only until proved otherwise. We are discussing the newer techniques that are being done using scientific methods. Advance new techniques were suggested and we tried to use them to locate and discover the temple site and its ruins, if any. Photo gallery provides various views of Kailash.
Photo Gallery During the three field trips many photographs were taken by our team members. A selection of the photographs is presented in the beginning of each chapter for a quick visit to Kailash. They have been categorized with captions so that the reader can appreciate them. A folded Kailash area map as well as a Timeline chart has also been included.
Note: Abbreviations with explanations are given at the end of the Granth.