Chapter outline and page reference:
Introduction 15
Importance of Girnar 17
Neminath 22
Girnar as a Siddha Ksetra for Jain Renunciates 36
Jain Tonks on Mount Girnar 41
First (Pratham) Tonk: Dev-kot 42
Second (Dusri) Tonk: Ambika 43
Third (Tisri) Tonk: Gorakhnath 45
Fourth (Chaturtha) Tonk: Oghad 46
Fifth (Panchvi) Tonk: Datta 48
Seshavan 49
Vastupala and Tejapala 50
Ksetrapalas or Guardians of Girnar 54
Similarities between Svetambar Jain and Nath Siddha Traditions, with Special Reference to Mount Girnar 57
Mount Girnar, Renunciation, Alchemy, and the Gaining of Siddhis 66
Jain Temples at Girnar Taleti 74
Svetambar Temples 74
Digambar Temples 75
Jain Paintings and Sculptures of Girnar 78
Some Non-English Jain References about Girnar 94
Chapter preview (first three pages only):
Shri raivat giri ne namo namah
Shri ujayant giri ne namo namaha
Shri suvarna giri ne namo namaha
Vandana ho girnar ne
[Hindi]
Auspicious Mount Raivat, respect to you
Auspicious Mount Ujayant, respect to you
Auspicious Mount Suvarna, respect to you
Praise to Girnar
Figure 1. A Jain triptych celebrating five of the most sacred places of Jain pilgrimage. Mount Girnar is represented in the lower right. The other four Jain tirths represented on the religious map are Satrunjay Hill (centre), Prabhas (upper left), Parsvanath Peak (Samet-Shikar) (lower left), and Mount Abu (upper right). The triptych is gouache on paper, mid-nineteenth century. Size of the original: 56.5 X 76 cm (from Schwartzberg 1992b).
Introduction
The Jain religion has always considered mountains sacred. The Tirthankars spent long periods meditating in caves in the mountains, and all of them went to the mountains to die. Shah (2008, page 340) stated that: ‘Mountains are usually associated with penance and meditation in Jaina literature. The Jaina cosmology speaks of a number of legendary, glorious mountains… The mountains are respected and revered as holy places, often possessing magical powers. They are considered the abodes of various gods like kinnaras. In an inscription on the main door to the Jaina temples at Girnar, the mountain is praised for its beauty and it is stated that “O, mountain, even sun-constellations are so lost in your love that they have forgotten their way (i.e. they are circum[am]bulating you)” (Jain K.P. 1939: 186–187.). There are numerous accounts describing the beauty and power of the mountains, particularly famous tirthakshetras. Thus, the mountains held a special position and meaning in Jainism. The Jainas preferred to build their temples on the top of high mountains and a number of such Jaina temple-cities evolved during medieval period.’
From very ancient times Mount Girnar has had great significance for Jains, primarily because it is intimately connected with Bal Brahmachari Shri Neminath Bhagwan, the 22nd Tirthankar and one of the panch-tirathi i.e. the five most popular Tirthankars, along with Adinath (1st), Shantinath (16th), Parsvanath (23rd) and Mahavir (24th) (Tod 1829–1832, page 1775). Granoff (1988) pointed out that in Jain tradition there is an: ‘intimate relationship between pilgrimage site and Jain saint, and between the description and praise of a holy site and the biography of a holy man that can easily be documented in medieval Jainism…Tirtha and saint co-operate in reinforcing each other’s powers’, and also that there is ‘a fundamental relationship between the growth and development of biography and pilgrimage stories, between the saint as walking locus of sanctity and the holy site as unmoving basis of his operations and likewise locus of sanctity.’
Chatterjee (1978, page 110) commented that ‘…according to the Digambara tradition the earliest canonical authors of this sect were connected with Girinagara’ (see also Jain 1939, page i), and he also stated (page 159) that ‘From a very early period it was considered to be a sacred duty for every pious Jain to undertake a trip to this holy hill [of Girnar], believed to be the place of Nirvana of Neminatha.’
Singh (1972, page 99) stated that: ‘The main seat of Jainism in western India in ancient days, was Girnar which corresponds to modern Junagarh… Girnar enjoys a very important position in the scheme of Jaina Tirthas of note…The fact that the traditions of the Jainas state that 22nd Tirthankara Neminatha attained Nirvana on mount Girnar also shows that the region must have been a strong centre of Jaina activity. Even if the traditional accounts are not considered as historical facts, it is clear from our inscriptions that Jainism at Girnar exercised a great influence in the 1st century B.C. and the early centuries of the Christian era. Jainism in this region was so deeply rooted that it continued to be an important Jaina seat even in later periods…’. For example, Mishra (2006, page 9) noted that: ‘…literary sources indicates that for the period between A.D. 300 – 600 Jaina monks seemed to have lived in Saurashtra near Girinagara.’
Burgess and Cousens (1897, page 357) provided a translation of a very brief inscription at Girnar, on the edge of ‘a raised square-seat under a tree in the compound of what is called Humada’s holy place’: ‘In the year Sam. 58, Monday, 2nd of Chaitra Vadi, the image of Panchanachanda, the pupil of Nemichandra in the Dhara division.’ Singh (1972, page 99) read this inscription as recording ‘the Pratisthapana of an image of Panchanachanda a pupil of Nemichandra at Dharaganja’. Chatterjee (1978, page 96) commented on this inscription: ‘The date has been assigned to the Vikrama era of 58. However, we have not been able to examine the palaeography of this inscription, and therefore no conclusion is desirable on the basis of this inscription alone. However, since the Nayadhammakahao and other canonical texts associate Girnar (Ujjimta or Ujjamta) with Aristanemi, we need not be surprised to come across a 1st-century inscription from the hill.’
As a result of Neminath providing Girnar with remarkable sanctity, for probably significantly more than 2000 years, numerous Jain Monks have chosen the location for their occupation as well as for their severe penance. In addition, over the centuries frequent Jain lay pilgrimage groups (sanghas), sometimes consisting of thousands of participants, have visited Mount Girnar to pay their respects. On many occasions the sangha yatra leaders or sanghapatis, usually wealthy individuals, have made major contributions to the building of temples at Girnar. According to Tambs-Lyche (2004, page 11): ‘The Jains, merchants and rivals of the Nagars, prefer to note their own temples on the Girnar and the remains from Buddhist times as examples of Junagadh’s greatness before the days of Muslim ‘tyranny’.’ Even in relatively recent times, very large Jain pilgrim groups have made the journey to Girnar, for example, according to Davidson and Gitlitz (2002, page 268): ‘Circa 1950, a wealthy Ahmedabad businessman underwrote a caravan of 15,000 pilgrims, including