SAHABAD
India has
quite a few
places where there has been a continuity of religious fervor for centuries and the fervor has found concrete shape in the form of
temples and places of pilgrimage. There are again some places which were temple-cities and had been very important once but, owing to passage of time and the vicissitudes of history, are now no longer places of pilgrimage and merely contain relies of great importance.
There are, too, some places, which had become quite famous because of a
Temple or temples but had gone into oblivion for some time and then revived again. Bodh Gaya in the Gaya
district is an example of this. Shahabad district was once famous for Jain shrines, but for quite some time the Jains lost their foot-hold there. Again in recent times that district and particularly Arrah, the headquarters town of the district, has become a place of pilgrimage for the Jains all over India.
Shahabad district, with its headquarters town Arrah was once the stronghold of Jainism. This is proved by the find of about twenty
images of the Tirthankaras Neminath, Rishabhanath and others. The find of the Kalpavriksha (tree) with a fine sculpture and the Dharma Chakra, excavated from Chausa in the Buxar Sub-division, definitely go to show that Jainsim had flourished in this area prior to the sixth century A.D.
The Tirthankara Rishabhanath originated the Dharma Chakra and sculptural specimens of the Dharma Chakra have been found in India only at such places where Jainism had its great strong-hold once. These relics are kept in the Patna Museum now. The age of the relics is put between the Sixth and Ninth Century A.D.
Not much is known of the old Jain temples in this district. It is to be noted, however, that the Jain temples were quite often pulled downs and rebuilt the Hindu temples. However, it may be presumed that Jainism had continued in the district from the 10th centuryonwards but probably not as vigorously. The history of Jainism in this district during the middle period is not quite clear. But again we find relics dating to the 16th Century.
There are a number of Jain images of the year 1554 in the Chandra Prabhu Chaityalaya built by Shri Chunni Lal. It is clear from the murtilekha of Mul Nayak Pratima of Chandra Prabhu that it was built in Aram Nagar, in Samvat 1562, Baisakha sudi astami. There is another image of Chandra Prabhu in the same temple bearing the date of installation as Baisakha sudi tija, 1533, and established by Jivaraja Papuriwal. Jivaraja Papuriwal is said to have installed one lakh Jain images throughout India and obviously this image is one of them.
There is a Jain temple in village Masar, 6 miles west of Arrah. Its murtilekha bears the date of Baisakha sudi chaudus, 1876. Masar is a place of antiquity. This is the Mo-ho-so-lo of Hiuen Tsang. Seven inscriptions prove that Mahasara was the ancient name of the present Masar nearly five hundred years old in the Jain temple at Parasnath. A large number of Brahmanical images have been found in this village and also the foundations of some old temples. The Jain temple completed in 1819 A.D. has eight Jain statues, on which there are seven inscriptions dating back to 1386 A.D., when some Rathor Jains of Marwar had settled down here.
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