Jaina Monuments and Places First Class Importance

Author(s): T N Ramchandran
Publisher: Veer Shasan Sangh Calcutta

Page 12

JAINA MONUMENTS
crn entrance of Rajgir with the Udayagiri which, continues eastward as the southern range of Rājgir hills. The Udayagiri in its turn forms the southern entrance of Rajgir with the Sonagiri The Sonagiri extends further west or southwest to forin the western entance of Rājgir with the Vaibhāra hill which stands in front of it. The Rajgir hills forming two parallel rangos, northein and southern, run north-east over a distance of 9 miles and terminate at the village of Giriyak.
In the inscriptions of the Jaina temples on Vaibhàragiri the names of the hill is sometimes written as Vaibhāra, and sometimes as Vyavahāra'. It is apparently the same mountain as Varhāra which is described in the Mahābhārata as a vipula śaila, or 'massive rock'. According to Jinaprabhasūri, the city of Rājagtha shone forth in the valley of Taibhāragiri with Trikūļa, Khandika, and the rest as its bright peaks. The Jaina author speaks of some dark caves in this hill that could not be entered without much difficulty (tamaskanda-duvigāhaguhä). He refers to this sacred hill as the site where one might be easily inclined to build kundas of tepid and cold water (lapta-śītām bul-kundāni). Close to this hill were the Sarasvatī and other streams flowing with pleasant waters with properties to heal diseases, and they served as so many popular Tirthas (bathing places). 'The Saugrolas (Buddhists) built vihāras on this hill, finding it to be a suitable site (pratideśa), and the Jainas installed images of the holy Arhats (Tirtharkaras) in the chailyas (shrines) built upon it. Thus Rājagtha and its neighbourhood have a considerable importance in the history of
Jainisin. For it was in Nālanda, a suburb of Rājagrha, that Mahāvīra spent the second year of his asceticism. It was again in Rājagrha and Nalanda that he found his early supporters in such rich householders as Vijaya, Ananda, Sudarśana and Bahula. Gosāla, the leader of the Ajiyikas, met him first in Rājagrha. The settlement of Kollāga (Konnāga), and the village