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Vol XXII, 1998
the Jain community nght from the days of the Upanisads, through the Great Epics, the Rāmāyana and the Mahabharata, and has remarked that although the Jain community is a tiny minority group consisting of about three million, their importance is not inconsiderable because of the part they in the activities of the Indian Republic She has given a brief picture of the way of their religious beliefs and practices, of the highly austere life-style of the Jain monks And, at the end she has noted that it is remarkable that one of the most famous Indians of the 20th century listened to, and diffused in his own way, the echoes of the message preached around the middle of the first millenium BC, to the faithful who were going to form the Jain Community, that very same community who, in 1974-75 solemnly celebrated the 2500th anniversary
of Mahavir's Nirvana
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Just on the page facing the first one an outline map of some parts of Gujarat/ Rajasthan is given with the locations of the Mount Abu, Ranakpur, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Cambay, Shatrunjaya, and Palitana, and a few other places The follows two photographs one of the nuns of the Shatrunjaya and the other of the pilgrims climbing up to the temples of Shatrunjaya by the 3,970 steps About forty-two color photographs are given in the section pertaining to Palitana, and each photograph is preceded by a brief write up by Nicole Tiffen Among these are the photographs of one of the many hitters used to help certain pilgrims to climb the hill, of the outer wall, the forecourt of the fortress, a group of pilgrims climbing the sacred hill at dawn, the great east gate, the Pujans, the tower of the temple of Chaumukh, a statue of the Tirthankara Adinatha, a Jain Brahman about to bless a delegation, pilgrims being blessed by the Jain Brahmin after they bowed before the statue of Adinatha, the donors from Rajasthan listening to an address, servants and pilgrims meditating inside the main temple, the Jains seated in the lotus position on the marble floor, one of the tutees (courtyards) between the 863 temples of Shatrunjaya, the ancient tree near the little temple of Rayana puja and the Tirthankara statue, a Jain passing through the courtyards of the temples of Chaumukh on Shatrunjaya, Jains ready for the morning ceremonies at the time of angi or the offering of flowers, a line of the faithful before the main statue of the Tirthankara Adinatha at the back of a rocky shnne, one of the entrances to the temple of Chaumukh (1618), the sacred hill of Shatrunjaya, a marble kiosk on the way where boiled water is served, a Jain family on way back from the temple to Palitana, the Jain Muni Abhaysagarajı, a famous guru of Palitana, a Shraman
