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Chapter 01
Introduction to Research
made eight one Yojan steps so that an ordinary man cannot climb, hence it is named as Ashtapad. Fearing some damage to the memorial by people and to make it impossible to reach the site, King Sagar's sons later on made a ditch all around the Jin Mandir. The 20th Tirthankar Munisuvrat Swami (supposed to be contemporaneous to Rama, circa 750-1500 B.C.)is believed to have visited this site for penance. If so many persons inhabited the place or visited and carried out construction activity, some remnants must surely exist. The structure existed till about 2600 years ago since the most recent mention in the scriptures refer to the visit of Gautam Swami (a disciple of the 24th Tirthankar Mahavir, 600 B.C.). The problem can be resolved if we can find any proof for any of the structures, mentioned above, from field survey/excavation or satellite imagery. However it is also mentioned in some scriptures that the structure later on disappeared. What caused its disappearance is not clear but it could be some geologic event like seismic activity, flooding or human activity. Although one cannot be sure, there is no geologic evidence for a major earthquake in this area for the past 2600 years which could have totally destroyed the Jin Mandir. It was therefore thought useful to look for some of the structures mentioned above obtained by satellite borne remote sensing methods. Dr. P.S. Thakker and Dr. Shashikant Sharma carried out a detailed analysis of satellite images of the region with some probable clues. Three field expeditions to the Kailash Mansarovar area, under ARIF which included geologists, archaeologists, space scientists and other technical experts were carried out during the last few years and ten probable Sites (Fig. 2) were selected on the basis of the description given in the scriptures and satellite imagery and were studied. These included Mount Kailash, Nandi Hill, some religious Sites like Gompa and Monasteries etc. The study did not succeed in identifying Ashtapad, although based on these studies some Sites can be excluded.
TRENCH
Mount Kailash
Mount Ashtapad
2.
Fig.1: Mount Kailash and Mount Ashtapad Based on age of pottery from the Ramayana site at Sringverpura dated by Thermoluminescence technique at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad (D.P. Agrawal, N. Bhandari, B.B. Lal and A.K. Singhvi, 1981)
11
The Quest for Ashtapad
