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Part IV. Rise and Glory
After a long wait the dream to build a domed temple came true. The foundation stone of the temple was laid on January 22, 1976. At this time, Amritlal Ranmal Raja and his family presented nine statues and the paintings. A delegation went to India to purchase marble and other stone especially for the temple. A team of artisans came from India to carve the stone and lay it properly. After continued construction for eight years, the work on the temple was completed. In the last three decades a lot of progress had been made on the religious sector. The dream now had become reality. This was an auspicious event. The celebrations of Pratistha Mahotsav (installation of the images) took place from February 4, to February 12, 1984. During these nine days people from India, the United Kingdom, Canada and many other places participated in this event. This event had an international flavor. Images of nine Tirthankars have been installed. This was a milestone in the history of the Nairobi Oshwal community. Over 10,000 people attended the celebrations. In 85 years of our settlement in Kenya the building of the domed temple was probably one of our most outstanding achievements.
A religious school was started in 1920 with just a few students. By 1970 the number had increased to 100 students. There was a desire in the community to start a school to teach Jain religion to the youngsters on regular basis. The number of students using boys' boarding house had decreased considerably. It was becoming clear that there was no further use for the boarding house. To make use of the facility a Jain school was started in the year 1978 in the existing building of the boarding house. In 1995 a new administrative block was added and in 1997 a new wing added.
Mumukshu Mandal Nairobi: Khimchand Virpar Zakharia of the village Of Kakabhai Sinhan who had attended Gurudev Kanji swami's discourse on Jain Religion in Songadh migrated to Nairobi around 1948/49. There he
