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The Unknown Pilgrims
b) Three Samadhi-mandiras When studying certain epigraphs and sculptures one notices that in the course of the centuries the devotion felt by śrāvakas and śrāvikās for the arhats was widened to include ascetics also. In order to express their veneration, record their gratitude and leave a sign for future generations, śrāvakas have erected - and continue to do so - samādhimandiras 344 to those munis and sådhvis who, during their life-time have been guides for the samgha, inspiring people by their lives and guiding them by their wise counsel. In these ascetics the śrāvakas and śrāvikās have found living examples of the ideal they are striving to follow and hence this profound veneration in their regard, a veneration which they manifest concretely in stone, that it, in time, for the engraved Names transmit a message to future ages. In expressing their devotion the śrāvakas and śrăvikäs are performing a profoundly religious act, both personally and as a group, for this requires a local organisation, the collection of funds and the supervision and execution of plans. In this way they together re-affirm their faith and their sense of belonging to the dharma.
In Răjasthāna samadhi-mandiras have been erected in our own day in three different places: Jayapura, Bikānera and Abū Road. They are contemporary pointers to the life-testimony of the sādhvis and the vitality of the dharma in this waterless region, where life is hard but faith finds its expression in an ardent, poetic devotion.
The samādhi-mandira of Sadhvi Punya Sri
This is located in Jayapura. 345 Sadhvi Punya was a pioneer in the Kharataragaccha from the time of her dikṣā in 1873 till her Great
344 The samādhi-mandiras correspond to the nișidikās of the Bhattārakas mentioned earlier; the design and sculptures-work may vary. A samādhimandira is a small sanctuary erected in memory of a man or woman ascetic and containing either his or her mürti (image, statue) or caraṇapaduka with one or more epigraphs. Here the members of the caturvidhasamgha pay homage to the memory of such ascetics.
345 Cf. Sädhvi Sajjana, 1960, p. 416.
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