Temple of Satrunjaya

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 51

Nijjot (i.e. harvest time) as an inām (gift) to the above mentioned, the best of grandees. It is therefore necessary that, considering the above named village as an inām to him, you shall not interfere in any way, in order that the people of neighbouring districts and places may come on pilgrimage to that place with undisturbed minds. In this matter, regarding it as a strict injunction you are not to swerve (therefrom). Written on the 29th day of the holy month of Muharram in the thirtieth88 of our auspicious reign.
The handwriting of the humble servant Ali Nakhi.
The 4th of Safar, in the thirtieth year of the reign; Presented in the (Huzur) royal presence.
The 4th of Safar in the thirtieth year: A copy was taken in the Diwan's (financial minister's) office.
The 4th of Safar in the thirtieth year-received.89
The Gohil Rajpur Chiefs of Palitana are descended from Shaji, the youngest son of Sejek who led his tribe from Marwad into Gujarat in the beginning of the thirteenth century; in the seventeenth their possessions were pretty extensive, and, to the chief then ruling, Satidas entrusted the charge of the hill, on condition that he should preserve to the Sravakas the free exercise of their religious observances and the inviolate sanctity of their tirtha, a condition said to have been long observed by his successors.
During the disturbances in the end of Shahjahan's reign, two confirmations of the former sanad appear to have been obtained: the first from Padshah Murad Bakhsh, dated 29th June 1658, peremptorily forbidding the exaction of any tax from the Sravaka pilgrims; the second, from his nephew, the son of Aurangzib dated 8th August of the same year, or within a week of Aurangzib's accession. 90 The following are versions of both these documents:
As Shahjahan began his reign in A.H. 1037, or 9th February 1628 A.D. we ought either to read the thirteenth here, or else the date on the seal ought to be 1067 in place of 1049. If Muharram 1049 A.H. is meant, it fell 22nd May 1639; if 1067 A.H. then this date is equivalent to 7th November 1656. I incline to the latter.
89 This translation, with some trifling corrections, is from the Special Appeal to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty from the Sravak Community of Western India, 1867. The Translator adds that, following the last four sentences, which are written on the back of the original, there is a part he could not decipher.
Mill and Wilson, Hist. Brit. India, 5th ed. Vol. II. p. 274. Aurangzib's accession however, is sometimes dated from 24th Feb. 1658.
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