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Andrea Luithle-Hardenberg, The “99fold” pilgrimage to Shatrunjaya
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Therefore, the four of them performed even more than 108 yatras, ranging from 113 to 131.
The final days of navanu: The embodiment of tradition The end of the navanu pilgrimage is marked by several elaborated rituals, but for the sake of brevity I want to refer to them only shortly. 52 The first ritual, the Navanu Prakari Puja, is celebrated two days before Posh Punam, the full moon day of Posh (December-January). On this occasion all navanu groups assemble together at the northern foot of the mountain, Jay Taleti, and “99 substances” are applied to a mobile image of Adinath, which is installed in front of the Taleti rock. The very last pilgrimage on the full moon day of Posh is accompanied by special observances. Similar to the first pilgrimage, the last is also commenced jointly by all members of a particular navanu group who collectively perform a caityavandan at Jay. Taleti. Furthermore, every individual pilgrim has to be engaged in a quite unique "mountain ritual”, the giri puja, which entails the cleansing and worshipping of every single of the 3745 steps of the main route to the temple of Adishvar. As Joshika explained to me in advance, this has to be done as a penance (prayascitt, alocana) in order to ask forgiveness for any ritual fault (ashatna), which a pilgrim might have committed by accidentally trespassing the rules and regulations during the many pilgrimages on the sacred mountain. With this ritual the pilgrims can prevent any harmful consequences to their karma. However, in order to complete the giri puja in one day only, the co-operation of all navanu pilgrims is again required. In smaller groups of 10 to 25 pilgrims they are taking shifts in carrying out the following procedure, which clearly resembles the ashtaprakari puja for Jina images: After bathing the step with milk and water, it is first dried with a white cotton cloth and then decorated with sandalwood paste, as well as a piece of silver or gold foil." At every shrine with images or footsteps (pagla) of the Jinas, which are located on the main route, the pilgrims stop for a short caityavandan ritual. Special attention is also given to the shrines of the protecting deities Hingulaj, Padmavati, Chakreshvari and Kapad Yaksh, who receive generous donations. While previously the pilgrims have performed their yatras more or less silently in order to save energy, they now continuously sing devotional songs about Adishvar or Shatrunjaya. The exceptionally cheerful atmosphere of the last yatra was also mentioned by the girls when they talked to me about this giri puja. On the last day, when returning from the top of Shatrunjaya in the late afternoon, the navanu pilgrims are venerated by a so called "group ritual” (sångh puja), which is organized by the sponsor of the particular group. The sponsor and his family members
52 For details see Luithle-Hardenberg (in print). 53 The expenses for that costly ritual of at least 2,5 lakhs are mainly born by the sponsors of the navanu group, even though every pilgrim is eager to add a minor donation to that sum.
