Temple of Satrunjaya

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

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of the Buddhists, composed the present work.94 It is a long panegyric in Sanskrit verse, extending to about 8,700 lines, put into the mouth of Mahavira, the last Tirthankara, who, on his visiting Satrunjaya, is requested by Indra to relate the legend of the mountain sacred to Adinatha. Accordingly he proceeds not only to tell the strictly Jaina legends of the hill, but interweaves with them long episodes of Brahamanic mythology, such as the history of Rama, the war of the Kurus and Pandus, and stories of Krsna, altering them just as he pleases.
According to the Māhātmya, the hill boasts no less than a hundred and eight names, and as many distinct sikharas or peaks, uniting it with the sister tirthas of Abu and Girnar,-many of them very lov not quite invisible. Of its names, the following is a selection:
Sri Satrunjaya-tirthanāmāni,--the etymology of which is thus given in the Māhātmya: Formerly there lived in Candrapura a cruel king named Kandu. Aroused by a voice from heaven, he went into the forest, where overcome by the cow Surabhi, he was bound by a Yaksa, and then left exposed in a cave. There he came to know of his guilt. His gotradevi or family goddess Ambika appeared to him and advised him to go on pilgrimage to Satrunjaya; and on the way he met a Mahamuni, who taught him fully. Through ascending the hill he obtained the victory (jaya) over his enemy (satru) sin.95
Vimaladri, Height of purification; Pundarika-parvata, or Hill of Pundarika, the principal disciple of
Rsabhanatha; Siddhiksetra, Siddhadri and Siddhabhubhrt, Hill of the Holy land; Sura Saila, Rock of the gods; Punyarsi, bestower of virtue; Muktigeha, place of beatitude; Mahatirtha, the great place of pilgrimage; Sarva Kamada, fulfiller of all desires;
Weber, Satr. Mahat. p. 15. Weber, uber das Satr. Mahat., p. 17. Tod, professing to have extracted it from the Mahatmya also, gives the following legend: "In distant ages Sukha Raja ruled in Palitana. By the aid of magic his younger brother assumed his appearance and took possession of the royal cushion. The dispossessed prince wandered about the forests, and during twelve years, daily poured fresh water from the stream on the image of Siddhanatha, who, pleased with his devotion, gave him victory (jaya) over his foe (satru), and in gratitude, he enshrined the god upon the mount, hence called Satrunjaya. The hill must therefore have been originally dedicated to Siva, one of whose chief epithets is Siddhanatha, as lord of the ascetics, a title never given I believe, to Adinatha, the first of the Jinas."-Travels in Western India, pp. 277-278.
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