________________
Two Unpublished Caitya Paripātīs on
Citod-tīrtha
Jitendra Shah
The tīrthamālās and the caitya-paripāțīs are the two distinctive types of metrical compositions in Jaina medieval literature. Of the two, the caityaparipātis concern with the pilgrimages undertaken to the Jaina holy places, the routes followed, and what was noticed at the tirtha-sites by the authors. These refer to the then existing caityas, their enshrined Jinas, and other concomitant information besides the numerical count of the caityas and in some cases the connected notable events and other details such as the names of the founders and the dates of foundations. Although the brief descriptions given—these usually are not important from literary viewpoint—they are invaluable as historical records of the Jaina places of Worship in medieval times. By editing such unpublished works preserved in the Jaina libraries of manuscripts, the scholars in the past like Vijayadharma sūri, Pandit Bechardās Doshi, Hirālal Rasikdās Kāpadiā, Mohanlāl Dalichand Deshāi, Sārābhāi Nawāb, Munivara Kalyānavijayjī, Agarchand Nahātā, Vidyadhara Johrāpurkar, and Madhusudan Dhāṁki (M. A. Dhaky) have attracted attention to them. A large number of those compositions describe the most revered holy places such as Satruñjaya with Pālitānā, Girnāra with Junāgadh, also Amdāvād (Ahmedābād, medieval Aśāpalli-Karnāvati), Pātan (Anahillapātana), and Khambhāt (Śtambhatīrtha) besides many, many other sites. Several of such works also refer to such other holy places like Idar, Abu, Serisā, et cetera, these psalms were composed mostly in Old Gujarātī. It is possible that several such works, hitherto unpublished, are still lying in the Jaina manuscripts libraries. An attempt here is made to publish two such paripātīs which so far were unpublished. These relate to the 'Citod' or 'Citradurga-tīrtha' in the Mevād area of south-western Rajasthan. For the purpose of comparison, I also include here the earlier published "Citod Paripātī," composed by the disciple of one Jayahemal.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
