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FEATURES 25
THE PAST
Ajay Gudka
near Junagadh, rises to a height of 3470 feet above sea level and is the highest hill in Gujarat. Girnar's name is mentioned in the Rudradama inscription as Girinagra. Swami Samantbhadra (c.575-625 AD), the celebrated dialectician and preeminent scholar of the Digambara sect, described Girnar Hills as bull's hump and paid homage to it. Hiuen Tsang calls it Yuhchen-to (Ujjanta), the same as Ujjayanta or Vaijayanta in Sanskrit. The temple complex
King Chandragupta Maurya. The Girnar Hills have at least six distinct peaks. Of the sixteen carved and sculptured temples across the Girnar peaks, five are Jain temples constructed at different levels. The idols of both Neminath and Adinath can be found here. The highest of these is dedicated to Guru Gorakh Nath. 4,000 steps, carved out of rock and stretching a mile or so, lead the pilgrims to the peak of the hill.
James Maturin-Baird
Dr. L. M. Singhvi is a leading Jurist and Diplomat. The above article is extracted from a beautiful photo book 'Jain Temples in India and Around the World', Himalayan Books 2002, available from Jain Spirit at £30 plus p&p. This article is continued in Issue 19.
Mount Girnar, Gujarat
James Maturin-Baird
Kumarapala in the 12th century. The hill is approached by a paved road which passes through scrub vegetation and trees. The temple is dedicated to Ajitanath and is surrounded by an extensive, paved courtyard. The statue of the presiding deity is huge, and the carvings are gorgeous in the inimitable Jain style. To the south of the temple is the famous Koti Shala, where several ascetics are reputed to have attained moksha. According to the Jain poet and thinker Hemachandra, Taranga is equal in religious merit to Shatrunjaya. Tradition has it that the Taranga temple had 32 storeys. Historians also say that the temple was originally a Buddhist shrine, for an image of the Buddhist goddess, Tara, was discovered here. An old saying goes that the craftsmanship of Mount Abu, the sculptures of Ranakpur, the height of Taranga and the grandeur of Shatrunjaya are unparalleled in the world. And the Taranga temple lives up to this saying. GIRNAR Known for the oldest and the largest
Neminath temple, Girnar Hills, situated Jain Education International 2010_03
retains its historic character despite many marks of vandalism and inattentive restoration. Inside the sanctum of the temple there is a large image of Aristanemi in a meditating posture, cast in black stone with shankha, conch, as his cognisance.
It is here at Girnar that Neminath, the twenty-second Tirthankara, practised nirjara (the giving up of food and water) as the last step to moksha, which he is said to have attained after 700 years of of meditation. Lord Krishna's grandson, Aniruddha, and thousands of Jain monks, are also said to have obtained moksha here. Girnar became an important Jain pilgrimage centre during the reign of
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