Temple of Satrunjaya

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

Page 76

IX
THE TEMPLES IN THE SIX SMALLER ENCLOSURES ON
THE NORTHERN SUMMIT
ing through a narrow door in the south-west corner of this
enclosure, we have the tuk of the five Pandavas on the right, and that of Sakarchand Premchand of Ahmedabad on the left.
The first of these is the smallest on the hill and contains only two temples and a Rayana tree. It takes its name from one of the temples in it, built by Sah Dalichand Kikavala in 1721, facing the south, and enshrining five statues of the Pandavas-Bhima, Yudhisthira, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, one of Draupadi, the wife of Arjuna, and one of Kuntiji or Prtha, one of the wives of Pandu, and the mother of the first three Pandavas, 129 the other temple stands immediately behind this and faces the east. It was built in A.D. 1803 (S.1860) by Sah Khusalchand Dayabhai of Surat, and "contains a thousand and twenty-four images on sahastrakūta130 and a hundred and sixty-nine on the päțiā, or plate of Meru, a statue of Lokapala,131 and a siddha-cakra.” Coming out of this we enter an enclosure to the south of the Kharataravasi tuk. It goes by the name of Seth Sakarchand Premchand of Ahmedabad who built it in A.D. 1836. The principal temple enshrines twenty-two metal statues of Parsvanatha, etc. A smaller one on the east, built at the same time by Sah Premchand Damodar, has eleven images of Parsvanatha; another by Seth Maganbhai, the son of Seth Karmachand Premchand (A.D. 1843) has eighteen statues; whilst a third by Sah Khimachand Jamunadas of Ahmedabad, built also in 1843 A.D., has fifteen statues of Padmaprabha. There are also some other small temples.
Behind, or towards the east of the last, and to the south of the Caumukh, is the tuk of Chipavasi. The temples are mostly small.
129
Conf. H.H. Wilson, Visnu Purana, p. 437; Hemacandra, Abhidh. Cint. 710, 711. Sahasrakuta, the thousand peaked,'one of the sacred mounts of Jaina mythology. Lokapala, a Raja of Sorath, of whom the Buddha-vilasa relates that he was betrothed to Candrarekha, daughter of the king of Ujjayini. On request to get some queries solved, she sent for her Guru to Kanauj; "and on his approach the Raja went out to meet him; but as he was naked further interview was delayed. At the entreaty of Candrarekha, however, who sent out clothes to him he put on a white cloth and entered the city, and was much respected. This circumstance is stated as the origin of the Svetambaras." --Delamaine, "On the Sravakas or Jainas," Trans. R. As. Soc., Vol. I. p. 416.
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