Rise and Glory History of Halari Visa Oshwals

Author(s): Rati Dodhia
Publisher: Rati Dodhia

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Part I. Origin
sacrificed during the Navratri festivities to please the goddess. Acharya Ratnaprabh Suriji stopped the animal sacrifice and replaced them with offerings of sweets and savory dishes to the Devi. The goddess became disenchanted with the offerings, cursed the acharya and inflicted pain on him in the eyes. The acharya endured the sufferings calmly. The Devi was bewildered and asked forgiveness, and ordered that thenceforth there would be no animal sacrifices in temple and that in future she would be known as Sachiya Mata. Even today the temple of Chamudadevi in Osiya is popularly known as Sachiya Mata Temple. She is regarded as the communal deity of Oshwals and many Oshwal families come here from all over the world to worship Sachiya Mata.
Construction of Mahavir Temple in Osiya
After his conversion to the Jaina religion Upaldev's Chief Minister Uhad built the temple of Lord Mahavir in Upkeshpattan. In that temple he installed the image of Lord Mahavir specially made my Chamuda Devi. She made the image by mixing sand and milk, and buried it in the ground to give its proper form and to harden She told the people to dig up the image after certain number of days. However people were impatient and dug up the image before the fixed time laid down by Devi and as result it still had knots on each thigh.
Another legend records the construction of Mahavir temple is as follows: In those days a rich person called Ahad was building a temple of Lord Shiva. Unfortunately whatever was built in the daytime was mysteriously demolished at night. In the end he went to the acharya who advised him to build temple of Lord Mahavir instead. After that the construction of the temple proceeded smoothly without any further mishap. Then question of the installation of holy image arose. For some time a cow had been spontaneously releasing milk from her udders in the