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HERITAGE:
JAIN TEMPLES
Spot
of Bother
A Digambar
monk's rebuilding mission divides Jains
By
Rohit Parihar
In
the town of Sanganer just outside Jaipur stands the Jain Sanghiji temple.
Its detailed carvings and beautiful idols have survived much since they
were created in the 11th century: the depredations of time, the Mughal
invasions, the internecine wars of Rajput princes, the neglect of a country
that so easily forgets its heritage. The point is, 10 centuries after
it came into being, can the Jain Sanghiji temple survive a bizarre reconstruction
mission that has overtaken Jain shrines across Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh?
 |
| Sudhasagar's
opponents accuse him of violating both religious and archaeological
norms by rebuilding Jain Sanghiji |
The "renovation"
of Jain Sanghiji was first detected by Justice (retd) N.M. Kasliwal, formerly
of the Supreme Court and a frequent visitor to the temple complex. A few
weeks ago, he noticed the white marble and green stone structures had
been embellished with red Dholpur stone. There were more visible changes.
The old stairway had been replaced with a new one. The two-storey temple
building now had a third floor. Two shikhars had been pulled down and
canopies constructed in their place.
It wasn't
just Kasliwal's aesthetic sensibilities that were and are hurt. "Have
you noticed the idols?" he asks. "They have been scrubbed to
give them a bright new look. Do they look representative of our ancient
heritage?" N.K. Sethi, a retired IAS officer and former commissioner
of the Devasthan (holy property) Department of the Rajasthan Government,
makes a more serious charge. "There has been a major act in changing
holy signs on the idols, which are now displayed in a new hall on the
second floor."
Jain Sanghiji
is home to idols of the 24 tirthankaras-the prophets revered by the Jains.
They are near-identical and differentiated only by a unique symbol engraved
on the individual idol. What Sethi "suspects" is that "some
of these signs have been scrubbed off and re-engraved in a haphazard fashion".
 Among
the devout, Sethi's assessment carries some weight. For 40 years, till
1991, he was president of the trust that managed the temple. Three years
later Munishri Sudhasagar, a Digambar Jain monk, visited Jain Sanghiji
and recommended that it be rebuilt in accordance with vastu shastra. So
in 1996 the bricklayers and masons moved in and Jain Sanghji began getting
a new face.
Nirmal Kasliwal,
secretary of the Sri Digambar Jain Atishey Kshetra Mandir, Sanghiji, defends
the reconstruction. "I deny changing the signs (on the idols),"
he says. "Anyone objecting to our actions should speak to us."
That is precisely what common devotees are fearful of doing, since the
"actions" have been decreed by Sudhasagar-a figure revered by
the Jain community and, seemingly, beyond questioning.
Yet, there
is an unexplained pattern to Sudhasagar's spiritual real-estate development
programme. Some years ago, he demolished the Nasiaji temple, 2 km from
Sanghiji and built a massive new structure. A 12-ft idol is ready and
waiting to be installed. In 1997, he visited Nindar Benar, a 500-year-old
Jain shrine 20 km from Jaipur, and ordered its demolition.
"He
said there was a basement beneath the temple and it should be unearthed,"
recalls Rikhabchand Jain, manager of the temple for two decades. "It
was painful to see the old platform and glasswork destroyed. And in the
end no basement was found."
The 'New
Aurangzeb': Sudhasagar claimed the temple was not in keeping with
vastu shastra and needed to be rebuilt. The new temple is still incomplete
and consequently the inflow of pilgrims and tourists has declined. When
Lalta Prasad Jain of Ferozabad, Uttar Pradesh, re-visited Nindar Benar
in 1999, he was "shocked to find that the temple had disappeared".
In the visitors' book, he upbraided the Jain community for not protesting
against the "new Aurangzeb's actions".
While Sudhasagar's
supporters say he is only trying to give crumbling temples a new life,
critics detect an inter-sect battle. After all, says Kasliwal, "Neither
religion nor archaeology permit the scrubbing of idols." Over the
years, Sudhasagar has attacked two Digambar Jain sects-the Tera Panthi
and the Bees Panthi-that have traditionally been influential in the Sanganer
region. The rebuilding project takes the argument further.
A marble
inscription at the Sanghiji temple carries laudatory references to Sudhasagar.
There is also a mythology being created, some fear. In 1999, Sudhasagar
walked into the basement at Sanghiji and brought out 39 idols that had
never been seen. He said the basement went down five storeys and only
naked, unmarried monks like him were allowed to make the descent.
Neeraj Jain,
a devotee from Satna, Madhya Pradesh, scoffs at these claims: "Four
of us, all married, went inside in 1962. There was only one basement with
a few idols. From where have the new ones come?" Others rue that"personal
glorification has become widespread, in total violation of Digambar Jain
teachings".
Inevitably
there have been demands for state intervention. Milap Chandra Jain, state
lokayukta and the judge who conducted the inquiry into the conspiracy
behind Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, favours a scrutiny "either by
prominent citizens or by the Archaeological Survey of India".
Else, says
a devotee alarmed by Sudhasagar's deeds, "Coming generations will
know nothing of the Jain tradition beyond 21st century monks who rebuilt
temples." The past has to be kept safe-for the sake of the future.
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