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there is a Tīrthankara image sitting in lotus pose. On the north of the pond there is a small Jain temple with five sikharas (superstructure or roof of a temple). In the survey settlement maps this is mentioned as Pārśva Natha temple. The platform outside the temple is mentioned as Pārsva Natha Cabūtarā (platform). Further ahead is a place called Akāśalocanakūta. Here there are eight long stone replicas of footprints. A little ahead of this place there is another cave in which ten one foot long images are carved on a rock. Further ahead are five rock carvings of five lotus-pose images and five standing images. Out of ignorance people have started calling these images as five Pāṇḍavas and Daśāvatāra (ten incarnations of Viṣņu).
Bhondala is a small village. If systematically explored, Jain images and temples can be found here as well. In Jain Purāņas there is a mention of followers of heretic beliefs during the last phase of the period of influence of Śītala Nātha. In this context it is mentioned that Bhutiśarma Brahmin had elaborated on the Jain concept of charity. Encouraged by this Muṇḍalayana evolved the code of ten kinds of charity. The king of Bhadrlapura in Malaya country was Megharatha and his minister was Satyakīrti; Bhutisharma was a Brahmin, and so was Muṇḍalāyana; all these appear to be interconnected historical links. If the period of these people could be ascertained, we could arrive at the period of Śītala Natha and Śreyansa Natha. In Dr. Jyoti Prasad's opinion the period of Śītala Natha, the tenth Tirthankara, must have seen the evolution of the Vedic Aryas. The spread of the Vedic clans in this area must have taken place before the Rāmāyaṇa period. But this must have been only after the Harappan civilization became extinct. In our enthusiasm to push the period of our great ancestors further back into the remote past very often we come out with contradictory arguments. Such efforts create hurdles in the path of authentic inferences. For example the gap between the periods of Mahāvīra and Sitala Natha cannot be more than 2000 years according to the aforesaid conjecture. But the Jain references mention just the life span of Śītala Natha to be one hundred thousand years. It appears as if Jain scriptures are using some sort of codes when they are talking about life-span, period of mundane life, physical dimensions, etc. If this is accepted, historians should seek help from mathematicians.
BHAGAVĀNA ŚREYĀNSA NATHA He was born to queen Venudevi, the wife of King Visņu (belonging to the Ikṣvāku family) of
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