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Rituals and Healing: The Case of....: 63 why some Jain temples and images have flourished for centuries while some others have ruined and abandoned over a period of time. Miraculous discoveries of the Jain images and their rehabilitation are very much related with the myth of their healing properties.
Temples having such idols emerge as significant centres for attracting pilgrimage depends on such wonder working myths only, usually either related to health or obtaining wealth. Thus the long standing relationship between the worshippers and the images of certain shrines is not just a spiritual one. It also bears testimony to the prosperity and growth of a particular kinship and religious lineage in the case of the Jains. Inscriptions in the Jain tradition are usually associated either with individual Jina images or else with temples and pilgrimage shrines. Most images have inscribed at their base (if stone) or on their back (if metal) the details of when and where the idol was consecrated, the name or names of the laity who sponsored the consecration, and the name of the monk (and his lineage) who actually consecrated the image. Inscriptions on temples at pilgrimage shrines such as those at Ābū, Giranāra, or Śatruñjaya ritually treated as most powerful ones coincidently also carries detailed information concerning the establishment of the temples and the lives of the major actors.
The process of healing does not remain limited to the arena of image carrying temples. It has been taken to the moral persona of the believers as well. The ritual of donation in Jainism has also been seen of healing the sins as a balancing act. The Jain lay- giver accumulates sin (pāpa) from cooking the food but accumulates more merit, good karma (punya) than sin (pāpa) by giving the food to the renouncer saint (giving the food with which a Jain renunciant breaks a fast is an especially meritorious act for a layperson). The renouncer remains unchanged in the amount of merit (punya) or sin (pāpa) he or she has, because renouncers are seen not to "eat" food but only to "use" food so that they may continue striving for liberation. They would not ask for the food to be prepared, wont they care about how it tastes. Furthermore, in theory, renouncers do not ask for food,
