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श्री राष्ट्रसंत शिरोमणि अभिनंदन पंथ
TEMPLE OF A JAIN GODDESS F
Dr. Dharam Singh There stands on the outskirts of Sirhind (on the Chandigarh road) an ancient temple consecrated to a Jain goddess, Shri Chakreshavari, Goddess Chakreshavari is believed to be an ardent devotee of Lord Adinath, also named Rishabdev, the founder Tirathankar of the Jain faith. The statue of the goddess was installed and a temple erected here sometime during the reign of Prithvi Raj Chauhan.
The Jain Chronicles record that in ancient and medieval times, the Jain devotees of Rajasthan region used to visit Kangra every year to pay their obeisance to Lord Adinath in the Jain temple there; presently this old temple stands a little distance from the Fort. These devotees also carried with them, on a bullock cart, the statue of the goddess, Chakreshavari. During the course of one such visit the pilgrims camped at this place, near Sirhind, to stay overnight. When they got ready to leave the place the next morning, the bullock-cart carrying the statue did not budge. A divine voice told the pilgrims of the goddess wish to be installed there permanetly. The Jain sources relate that the statue was duly installed there, and a temple came up in due course. Many additious have since been made, especially the sacred water-tank nearby. It is said that the pilgirms who now thronged this temple in large numbers deeply felt the scarcity of water. One day, the prayer of an innocent small girl to this effect was instantly heard by the goddess. They say that a spring of water suddenly shot up at the place where she stood praying. The water, believed nectar by the devotees, has curative value, they say.
The construction of this temple attracted many Jain families to settle in and around Sirhind. However, a little before Banda Singh Bahadur's conquest of Sirhind (AD 1710), the Jain community was forewarned by their goddess of the impending disaster, and they emignated to different places. It is generally believed that forefathers of most of the Khandelwal Jains at Sunam, Nakodar, Jalandhar, Urmur, Garhdiwala, etc. had migrated from Sirhind at that time. This assertion is based on the fact that most of the Jains visiting Kangra from Rajasthan during the reigon of Prithvi Raj Chauhan belonged to the Khandelwal sub-caste for whom Chakreshavari was also their tribal goddess. Even today Khandelwal Jains are more enthusiastic in their devotion to this goddess.
Interestingly, Jainism and goddess Chakreshavari have some very close interconnections with Sikhism. One, the person in whose house Guru Tegh Bhadur left behind his family at Patna while proceeding further eastward came originally from Jain tradition though the family had by then become adherents of Sikhism it was in the house of this family that Guru Gobind Singh was born. Second, after the death of Guru Gobind Singh's mother and two younger sons, Seth Todar Mal who made arrangements
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