Jain Digest 2015 06

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 29

JAIN DIGEST
Aden (Yemen)
India and Yemen have a long history. Yemeni traders served as intermediaries for Indian trade and the Roman Empire. The Hajj route from India ran through Aden.
In 118 39, Aden became part of the British Empire and was administered under the Bombay Presidency. A garrison of 2000 Indian soldiers was established in Aden and the Indian Rupee was made the official currency of Aden. Mahatma Gandhi visited Aden on September 2, 1931, on his way to London to participate in the Second Round Table Conference, accompanied by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Sarojini Naidu and others, during which time he was given a warm reception by the people of Aden.
forple to offer proyers. They did Pooja in their own traditional way in this Join temple
A large number of Indian nationals, including Hindus, Muslims, Jains and Parsies, had lived in Aden during mid-1880s until mid-1950s. There is a rich heritage of Hindu, Jain and Parsi temples in Aden. More than 2,000 jains lived there from late 1800. Shwetamber Jain Derasar was built around 1890. This was established in cloth markets. Shops for jains were on lower level. On the upper level was the temple which had the Murti of Mahavir swami and Shree Shantinath. These idols were sent to the Mumbai Paydhoni derasar in 1965-66. They also had Upashraya. At present out of ten original temples of different Indian faiths, four survived and one - Mataji Maharaj Temple - is in active use. Jain temple has no idol. Some pictures are present.
Sthanak was taken away. One of the Jain Shravak 93 years old, who lives in Miami, was born in Aden.
Jainism in Pakistan
After 1947, most of the Jains left Pakistan. Pakistan had many Jain temples in Punjab and Sindh. The spread and prosperity of Jainism in Sindh is marked by the presence of temples in Tharparkar district of Sindh. In particular Gori, Viravah, Bodhesar, Sati Dhara, Umarkot town, Gadro and Nagarparkar are known for their Jain temples.
29 I MAY-JUN 2015