CHAPTER 7 – Some Notable Visitors to Junagadh/Girnar during Historical Period

Chapter outline and page reference:

Acharya Bhadrabahu I 307
Acharya Samantbhadra 307
Saint Thomas the Apostle 309
Padalipta Suri 310
Acharya Kundkund 310
Acharya Pushpadanta and Acharya Bhutabali 311
Yuan Chwang 312
Manadeva Suri 313
Shankaracharya 314
Bappabhatti Suri 315
Matsyendranath 315
Vadivetala Santi Suri 316
Acharya Hemachandra 316
Sidhraj Jayasingh 317
Kumarapala 318
Vastupala and Tejapala 319
Vijayachandra 319
Jagadu Shah 320
Pethad Shah 320
Jnanesvar 322
Samara Shah 322
Jinkushal Suri 322
Jinaprabha Suri 323
Narsinh Mehta 324
Sakalkirti 325
Gunaraja 325
Somasundara Suri 325
Jinabhadra Suri 326
Kabir 326
Sanghavi Kheta 327
Sankhvalecha Mala Shah 327
Jnanabhusana 328
Chaitanya 328
Vallabhacharya 329
Guru Nanak 330
Saubhagyaharsha 331
Ratnakirti 331
Vinayavijaya 332
Narendrakirti 332
Kshemendrakirti 333
Baba Kinaram 333
Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai 334
Muni Shasidhar 340
Mekran Dada 340
Purana Puri 342
Raja Chandra Chhabara 343
Sukhendrakirti 343
Niranjan Raghunath 343
Swaminarayan 344
Narayana Maharaja Jalavanakar 344
Apa Giga 345
Jalaram Bapa 346
Gunatitanand Swami 347
James Tod 348
John Wilson 349
William Lang 350
Thomas Postans 350
Marianne Postans 351
James Burgess 351
Shri Manik Prabhu 353
Swami Samarth 354
Alexander Kinloch Forbes 355
Andrew Wilson 356
Bhagatji Maharaj 357
Vishnupant Bhaskar Lele 358
Colonel John Whaley Watson 358
Sir James Macnabb Campbell 358
Henry Cousens 359
Oliver Codrington 360
Swami Vivekananda 360
Pavhari Baba 361
Sivanarayan Swami 361
Delphine Menant 364
Henry Steel Olcott 364
Mirza Murad Ali Beg 365
Annie Besant 365
Sridatta Maharaja 366
Shyamdas Baba 367
Gajananrao Pandurang Natekar (Bhagwan Shri Hamsa) 367
John James Aubertin 368
Sir Evan Maconochie 368
Daduram 369
Shri Purohit Swami 370
Professor Shankar Purushottam Agharkar 371
Mehri Mah 371
Svetoslav Roerich 371
Shankar Maharaj 372
Meher Baba 373
Daphne Lois Macready 373
Robert Svoboda 374
Siddhinathananda 374

Chapter preview (first two pages only):

The following is an essentially chronological list of a selection of some of the more famous or noteworthy visitors to Junagadh or Mount Girnar. Many of these visitors stayed only briefly, whereas many others chose to make the location their permanent residence.

Acharya Bhadrabahu I
Acharya Bhadrabahu I (433–357 BC), the last Shrutkevli (possessor of the knowledge of the entire system of Jain scriptures) Acharya, was a Jain monk, a spiritual teacher of Chandragupta Maurya, and author of several texts related to Jainism, including some of the most important works, Upsargahara Stotra and Kalpa Sutra. He was born in Pundravardhan, now in Bangladesh. When he was in Ujjain, the secondary capital of the Mauryas, he was able to foresee that there would be a 12-year famine across North India. He decided the famine would make it harder for monks to survive and migrated with a group of monks to South India, bringing with him Chandragupta, the founder of the Mauryan Empire, turned Jain monk (Wikipedia 2009g). The Kalpa Sutra is the earliest text containing the biographies of the Jain Tirthankars, Mahavir (24th), Parsvanath (23rd), Neminath (22nd) and Adinath (1st), since the arrangement of the book moves back in time. Acharya Bhadrabahu is one of many Jain saints to have visited Girnar (Jainethics.com 2009).

Acharya Samantbhadra
Acharya Samantbhadra, named Shanti Verma in his childhood, was a prince of the Kadamb dynasty. He was born in Uragpur on the banks of the River Kaveri in the Deccan, and according to some scholars he lived until 81 AD (VS 138). Dhaky and Moorti (2001, page 5), placed him much later (575–625 AD), and had the following to say about Swami Samantbhadra: ‘…the celebrated epistemologist, dialectician, and hymnist of the Digambara sect, apparently had visited this sacred mountain [Ujjayantagiri = Girnar], since in his famous hymn, the Svayambhustotra, he graphically uses the metaphor ‘kakuda’ or bull’s hump for its appearance which it does look like in profile.’
Samantbhadra was initiated into the order of Digambar Jain sainthood at an early age. Besides being a great scholar of Jain philosophy, he was an incomparable master of logic, grammar, prosody, poetry and lexicography, and was possessed of an uncommon power of exposition of the holy texts. He was known as ‘adi kavi’ (first poet) of Sanskrit among the Jains.
Samantbhadra’s Swayambhu Stotra, also known as the Chaturvinshati Jin Stotra, is a collection of Sanskrit hymns to the 24 Swayambhus (Tirthankars). It is a systematic exposition of Samyak Darshan, Samyak Gyan and Samyak Charitra. The author skilfully achieves this by expounding the fundamentals of Jainism, Ahinsa, Aparigrah, Anekant and Syadvad. He explains the rationale behind Bhakti (devotion), the prime importance of compassion, and highlights the virutes of self-restraint, renunciation and meditation. His Aptamimansa (also called Dewagam Stotra) was the first systematic exposition on Jain Nyay (logic) (Jainworld.com 2009a). Acharya Samantbhadra is one of many Jain saints to have visited Girnar (Jainethics.com 2009).
In his Swayambhu Stotra, Acharya Samantbhadra has written in praise of Mount Girnar: ‘Hey Urjayanta! You stand high as the hump on the land, Vidyadhar Pairs (persons having abnormal powers uncommon to general man) reside over you, you are well adorned by spires, clouds just touch your surface and Indra himself marked the symbol of Bhagwan Neminath by his Vajra on your blessed land’ (127) (Jainis.com 2009).
In the Stuti Vidya (Eulogy of the Jinas), also called the Jina Shatak, of Acharya Samantbhadra, the author praises the Jina Neminath as follows (Jain 2007, page 96):
‘I constantly adore Bhagwan Neminath who is unegost (prideless); who is observer of excellent and perfect right conduct; and who is the Lord (or the monarch) of adorable and wise (or prudent) saints by repeatedly paying obeisance to him with all my mind, speech and body.
‘O God! Your fame is transparently clean. You are unknown to (do not come in the purview of the knowledge of) persons of little or meagre knowledge. You top the (list of) honourable persons. You are the lord of Indras; Ahamindras and other important beings. You are the master of saints and vowful individuals. You are adored by top intellectuals. O Lord! please, endow me with that unique bliss of salvation whom you command. I do not wish or desire any sexsual pleasure.’