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Chapter 01
Introduction to Research
Kailash region. The name Ashtapad is derived from the fact that there are eight (Ashta) Steps (Pad) leading to the Palace/Temple. The literature further describes that the descendants of Rushabhdev also made a trench around Ashtapad to protect it. At present, the exact location of Ashtapad is not known. The scriptures further describes that about 2600 years ago, Gautam Swami, main disciple of Lord Mahavir, climbed, stayed overnight and worshipped at Ashtapad Mountain. If Ashtapad temple existed at that time, then the questions that need to be investigated are what happened to it during the subsequent period? How did it disappear? Could it have been destroyed either by forces of nature or by someone else or was it buried due to geological processes? The current article is an effort to address these questions as well as to explore the new techniques to locate the Ashtapad Temple. 2. Exploring the Period of Bhagwan Rushabhdev Findings from the Existing Records a. Jain Scriptures: In order to achieve the goal of discovering the Ashtapad Palace - Temple, first we have to estimate the period of Bhagwan Rushabhdev. In this context, I attempt to fix the milestones to narrow down the period of Aadinath. So, firstly, let us look at the Jain scriptures related to period of Bhagwan Rushabhdev (Khyu Chok in Tibetan language), which suggest his period of birth, ruling, meditation and salvation was koda-kodi years ago from present. Currently according to Jain scholars, Acharyas, Muni Sadhus and Sadhvi Matajee the unit koda-kodi equals 10' X 10' (=104) years i. e. 105 times before the birth of the Earth. In Figure 1, a brief overview of period of Bhagwan Rushabhdev described in various Jain scriptures is presented. Period of Bhagwan Rushabhdev (KHYU CHOK)
Jain Scriptures • Period from Present: Koda-kodi (10' X 10' Years) • Birth : Falgun Krishna 8th; But year is not known ! • Age
: 84 Lacs Purva • Youth period
: 20 Lacs Purva • Ruling Period
: 63 Lacs Purva • Diksha Period
: 1 Lac Purva • Chadmasthakaal (595Rech): 1000 Purva • Height
: 500 Dhanushya Fig.1: Brief summary of birth, period and height of Bhagwan Rushabhdev as described in the Jain scriptures. It may be noted that his date of birth is given in the scriptures but year of birth has not been mentioned. Further, period of his age, youth, ruling, Diksha etc. has been presented in the unit of Purva and the height in the unit of Dhanushya. However, it appears that both unit Purva and Dhanushya were described much earlier, perhaps during the period of Bhagwan Mahavir, and later while using by individuals in last 200-500 years have been interpreted as per their own understanding. Even some Acharyas/Scholars have interpreted the unit purva as Purv (before). For example they referred the age of the Bhagwan Rushabhdev to be 84 lakh years purv, which, in fact, cannot be interpreted correctly in context to application of two units viz. years
- New Techniques to discover Ashtapad
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