Osiaji Mahavira Temple

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

Page 24

Future visions in restoration and religious
aspirations
As the time progresses, the antiquity of the temple complex is also advancing. There is an urge to also value the shrine as an important mile-stone in the local as well as regional history. In any case monument with such a strong unbroken lineage of worship are extremely important indicators of cultural traditions of people of Jaina community. It provides an important link to the patronage provided to religion which was the binding force for the community in general, for this reason there is now a serious move on the part of the trust to preserve the unused old parts as relics of the historic temple and build up a small museum so that the important indicators of history can be made available for future generations to view this within the temple complex and thereby understand the historic connections of this temple through its artistic fragments, which had to be replaced for upgradation of temple structure. As the anthropologist Marshal Sahlins (RES : Anthropology and Aesthetics 1992 : 21) has emphasized that "Tradition is not static, nor is it in this way opposed to ‘modernity' ”. He cites Remo Guidieri and Francesco Pellizzi's poignant observation that "in many instances authenticity through mutations in form so that the current task of traditional societies appears to be the recycling of ethnic memory through various forms of cultural reinterpretations (1988 : 26). In this way, in fact, the present forever extends the past. (Michael Meister RES 27 1995).