Osiaji Mahavira Temple

Author(s): Rabindra J Vasavada
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 21

Issue of Change and Continuity and Sompura Traditions
In connection with the Mahavira Temple's unbroken tradition of worship by Jaina, Michael Meister argues in his article (ibid) that the course of renovation and expansion in the compound and not simply the chronology are integral to our understanding of these monuments and that recent decades are as important as the archaeology of past periods. He further cites the Pattavali of the UpakesaGaccha (first published by Rudolph Hoernle in 1890) which preserve appropriations, reappropriations, and reformulations as complex as those found in monuments themselves. It provides a series of embedded clues to significant periods of transformation in Jaina community's perception of its monuments as well as a fantastic and fabulistic account of Osian's origin. He also mentions that what we see today is specifically a contemporary reclamation of Osian by Jaina pilgrims. The Mahavira Temple now recognized within the Jaina community as western India's oldest Jaina shrine, which has received in recent decades substantial institutional support from the Anandji Kalyanji Trust. ..such a contemporary assertion reflects documentable history more than a community's present day longing for an "embedded" past... he concluded by quoting Romila Thaper (Society and Historical Consciousness).. each version of the past which has been deliberately transmitted has a significance for the present, and this accounts for its legitimacy and its continuity.
Mahavira Temple complex is attached today with a school, and guest houses owned by the Trust. Its main entrance to north is modified and on its inside a large entrance hall constructed with domical roof. These spaces provide for increasing number of pilgrims, who visit the temple in large groups. These halls provide for multiple usage for religious activities from time to time. The main hall of the temple, also remodelled in early seventies is new construction with flat roof as an extension to the main shrine. It was during the same period that the roof of the inner hall, a pyramidal structure of the original temple, which had struts resting on beams, was repaired and refitted with new stones as the old structure showed the signs of failure of beams bearing struts due to its age. This