Jain Shwetambar Tirth Antriksha Parshwanath

Author(s): Antriksha Parshwanath Sansthan Shirpur
Publisher: Antriksha Parshwanath Sansthan

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been used from time to time to plaster the idol's body as a result of which that which was alleged by them to be a self-existent waist band had in the Digambari view been produced and the immediate occassion of the suit was that on the 13th February, 1908, the defendants 1 to 7, with other Digambaris acting in the interest of the sect, chiselled, as the plaintiffs alleged, by means of iron instuments, the alleged self-existent tie and waistband from the body of the idol and removed the plaster and erased the lines on its hands and ears, outraging thereby the religious feelings of the Swetambaris. For all this the plaintiffs claimed Rs. 15,003 as damages But the scope of the suit was not limited to that claim - It became the medium for vindioating Swetambari pertensions ranging for beyond its immediate occasion. By their plaint the plaintiffs asserted that the property in and right of management of the relief temple was and always had been exclusively in the Swetambaris. On that footing they claimed substantive relict against the defendants as representing the Digambaris. And the defendants were not slow to take up the challenge so thrown down, for although from time to time objecting to the regularity of the suit during its progress in India, they joined, without regret apparently in this prolonged conflict, which after nearly 23 years of litigation in India, has at length been brought before His Majesty in Council for final adjudication.
The Swetambari case as put forward by them can be shortly stated. Both the Temple of Shri Antariksha Parasnath at sirpur and that idol therein belong to their sect of the Jain community. It had been the uninterrupted privilege of the sect from time immemortal to worship the idol with the part showing the male organ covered up by a wais-tie and band and jewels and pastings on the body. The Swetambaris alone had uninterrutedly managed the affairs of the temple and of this idol, the Digambaris having no part or lot therein, until 1905, when, with due consideration, as it is put, for desire of the Digambaris to worship the sacred deity in their own way, some members of the Swetambari sect disinteres-tedly effected arrangement whereby the Digambaris were permitted to worship the idol at specified times without ornaments and under certain rules which
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