VOLUME 4
Girnar – Jain and Buddhist Associations
Preview (first three pages only):
Girnar is the soul and original geographic heart of the ancient Indian renunciate or ascetic tradition. The mountain was seen as a special deity probably long before the time of Lord Krishna and the essential Indian epic, the Mahabharat, at a time probably more than 1400 BC, when it was worshipped by the populace, as well as a place to inhabit for people who surrendered mainstream society and took the nvritti marg (path of renunciation or inward movement of consciousness). Throughout Girnar’s long cultural history it has been an especially important site for renunciates to dwell, as is evidenced, for instance, by the long established presence of some of the key renouncers such as Gorakhnath, Dattatrey and Neminath. In the same general period as the great epic, the 22nd Jain Tirthankar, Aristanemi or Lord Neminath, Krishna’s cousin, chose Girnar as his place of diksh (initiation), moksh (liberation from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth or reincarnation and all of the suffering and limitation of worldly existence) and keval gyan (ultimate knowledge or complete omniscience). Girnar was significantly the reason for the existence of ancient coastal port towns, such as Bet Dwaraka, Mul Dwaraka, Prabhas Patan Somnath and Porbandar. The mountain of Raivata is Girnar, and the original city of Kushasthali was where Junagadh now stands. This place was ruled by a long line of kings, including Vaivasvata Manu, Pramsu, Saryati, Anarta and Reva, until it was abandoned by King Revata. Krishna restored this old deserted capital of Kushasthali and created the first Dwaraka, before his town was later relocated to the Saurashtra coast. Thus Junagadh is the site of Krishna’s impregnable fort city Dwaraka, where for instance he received Arjun after entertaining him in his pleasure resorts at adjacent Mount Girnar. When Neminath came in a wedding procession to Raivataka (Junagadh) with the intention of marrying Princess Rajul, the place was ruled by her father, Raja Ugrasen, who had left his kingdom at Mathura for Saurashtra along with his grandson Lord Krishna and others of their Yadav family. It was also at Girnar that Arjun married Subhadra, the sister of Krishna.
The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore’s succinct description of the significance of India’s pilgrimage places could very appropriately be applied to Mount Girnar: ‘India chose her places of pilgrimage wherever there was in nature some special grandeur or beauty, so that her mind could come out of its world of narrow necessities and realise its place in the infinite’ (Tagore 1913, page 9). In reference to pilgrimage to holy places, Kane (1973) observed that (page 552): ‘Large rivers, mountains and forests have always been venerated as sacred…’, and that (page 559): ‘mountains have been held by most ancient peoples to be the abodes of the gods.’
There is reason to believe that Urjayanti of the Rgveda, and Vaijayanta of the Ramayana, are equivalent to Ujjayanta, an ancient name for Girnar which occurs in a range of texts and inscriptions such as the Mahabharat, Rudradaman’s (150 AD) and Skandagupta’s (457 AD) inscriptions on the Ashoka Edict Rock at Girnar, the Skand Puran (11th–12th century AD), and Merutunga’s Prabandhacintamani (1304 AD).
Junagadh and Mount Girnar was an important site for Buddhists from at least the time of Chandragupta and subsequently his grandson Ashoka through to probably at least 1,000 years after Ashoka. When Buddhist power was in ascendancy, for many hundreds of years, monks of the brethren were in huge numbers about the citadel of Uparkot as well as in the teak forest and on the peaks of Girnar. Although it has been almost completely unconsidered by the entire Buddhist world, there are very persuasive reasons to suggest that the tiny relic found in the heart of the Great Boria Stupa in the forests of Mount Girnar in the late 19th century, is that of the great Gautama Buddha. Campbell (1889) estimated the stupa to be about 2000 years old, but it had been built on top of a considerably older structure, a daghoba or relic tomb, overtopped by a very large stone triple umbrella. The relic could therefore very well date from 250 BC, when Emperor Ashoka presented original relics of Gautama Buddha to the leading cities near which copies of the Ashoka Edicts were carved.
As the location of Junagadh and Mount Girnar is undoubtedly the most famous ancient Buddhist settlement in Gujarat, the Gujarat Government’s interest in promoting the State as a destination for Buddhist tourists, including those from South-East Asian Buddhist countries, could very favourably be focussed there. The relic found in the Boria Stupa casket at Girnar clearly belongs to the Buddha, so for this reason alone the site is equally as important as the Devnimori Stupa (about 380 km north-east of Junagadh), where ashes of the Buddha were recovered. Junagadh is also one of only a handful of known places honoured with a set of Emperor Ashoka’s 14 rock edicts. A range of elaborate ancient Buddhist rock-cut cave complexes at Junagadh further adds to the value and attraction of the location, which unequivocally deserves to receive global recognition. Probably for over 1000 years, Buddhists in very large numbers occupied Junagadh and Girnar, as is evidenced by Yuan Chwang who in the 7th century noted more than 50 Buddhist monasteries with above 3000 monks. Another important attraction of Junagadh that could well repay patronage, development and publicity are the remains of the famous Sudashan Lake, a large irrigation reservoir that was maintained by Buddhists from at least the time of Chandragupta Maurya through to the reign of Skandagupta and probably somewhat beyond. The remains of early Buddhist monasteries at Intwa, within the Girnar mountain compound, are also significantly worthy of broader recognition. The recent discovery of a Buddhist monastery at Vadnagar (about 330 km north-east of Junagadh) attracted much excitement, and stimulated suggestions that it should be listed as a world heritage site (Mahurkar 2009). Similarly, the ancient Buddhist sites at Junagadh and Mount Girnar clearly require world heritage listing, as well as government sponsorship for their maintenance and promotion. Narendra Modi, when he was Gujarat’s Chief Minister, made plans to build a majestic Buddhist temple around the relics of Devnimori, to draw South-east Asian Buddhist tourists (Mahurkar 2009), and similar development at Junagadh would be very rewarding for all concerned, both visitors and locals.
Various significant sectarian disputes over control of Mt Girnar have occurred over a period of at least the past 1,200 years. Interested parties include the Svetambar and Digambar Jains, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims.
Girnar as the Dharma Chakra and as the Earthly Copy of the Celestial Wheel of Heaven
The name Girnar signifies ‘master of hills’. Gir denotes ‘a mountain’, but also ‘invoking or praising’, and ‘invocation, praise, song, speech, language, or voice’. Girnar is both ‘mountain-man’ and ‘invoking the eternal spirit’. Nara is ‘a man, a hero, or the gnomon of a sun-dial’, and nara is the primeval man or eternal spirit pervading the universe, always associated with narayana, the ‘son of man’ or ‘son of God’ as of the avatar or incarnation of God. Girnar is a vernacularisation of the name Girinarayana (White 1996, page 515), which is both ‘man-mountain’, and ‘god mountain’ or ‘god mountain that men go to’.
Probably at few or no others places on the surface of the earth is there a geographic formation that has such an accurately anthropomorphic appearance as the exceptionally life-like face of a man formed by the entire sheer rock escarpment that is seen in perfect profile from the western side of Girnar. To better understand the ancient importance of Girnar, due and substantial attention must be given to this ‘face of God’ or ‘face of man’. This face may be seen as the key to Girnar; it must be the most significant reason
Go to Table of Contents for list of chapters in this volume.
Excellent article. I was looking for the dating of the Boriya Stupa which has not been mentioned at the Sakkarbaug Museum of Junagadh. Thank you so much.I will refer to your article in my write up. Thank you.
Hi Sunita
Thanks for your comment.
In late 2014 both the Sakkarbagh and Darbar Hall Museums united and shifted to the old Taj Manzil Palace building at Saddarbagh.
I was fortunate enough to visit the Boria Stupa site last year. I think that it is a very special and important place, tucked away near the Bordevi Mandir, in the beautiful southern valley of the Girnar Compound. So I have dwelt at length on the topic in my chapter on ancient Buddhist sites at Girnar. I ended with the following few comments:
Professor Nayanjot Lahiri, a noted historian from Delhi University, found many loose bricks in the vicinity of the Lakha Medi Stupa, indicating that there could have been other stupas nearby. What she found alarming was that these bricks were being taken away by the locals for temple renovation. Dr Lahiri therefore proposed an urgent need for a complete survey and careful archaeological conservation of the site (Dasgupta 2011). For the benefit of all, she made the following plea for the preservation of this very valuable and fascinating site: ‘…Lakha Medi still remains forgotten. Surely, with so many programmes that speak of adopting monuments, can an archaeological saviour for this forgotten stupa step forward? Such a saviour is urgently required if future generations are to remember Girnar not only for the wildlife that thrives in its beautiful forests but also for the historic heritage that these forests have protected’ (Lahiri 2011a). Lahiri (2011b) also pointed out that there are serious gaps in our understanding of the culture of ancient Buddhist Girnar. She therefore proposed the need for further archaeological research in the area, for example a program of salvage archaeology in localities like Chamunda nearby Uparkot citadel, as well as the preparation of a catalogue of the excavated material at the monastic complex at Intwa and in the cultural debris from the rock cut caves of Uparkot.
Promotion of the Lakha Medi Stupa site as a Buddhist pilgrim and tourist destination, and the development of a small museum containing the original relics and artefacts, could attract large numbers of Buddhists and western enthusiasts to Junagadh and Girnar. Putting the location on the Buddhist pilgrimage map could bring about the revival of an important practice that probably existed for over 1000 years, probably beginning about the time of Asoka. The practice of making pilgrimage to the sacred sites where relics of the Buddha were housed within great stupas was an important activity in very early times, as is shown by many ancient reliefs which portray scenes of worship at sacred locations (Huntington 1990). At least by Asoka’s time in the 3rd century BC, numerous places associated with the Buddha had become famous pithas. One type of relic is called sariraka (pieces of the body), and by this, Huntington (1990) suggested that: ‘Buddhists refer not only to the cremated ashes of the Buddha, but also to any other bodily relic, such as hair, a tooth, a fragment of bone, or nails. Small caskets containing such sacred relics became an important focal point of Buddhist worship, and monuments and shrines said to contain such relics are found throughout the Buddhist world.’ Huntington continued: ‘that the importance of sariraka…relics has been greatly underestimated by Western scholars…I propose that the sacred trees, stupas, and other features that mark special places associated with the Buddha had inestimable importance in their own right…This concept is expressed in the Commentary on the Vibhanga, wherein it states that one obtains Buddhalambanapti (joy or ecstasy derived by looking at or thinking about the Buddha) by looking at a stupa housing a relic of the Buddha…’.
Campbell’s 1889 account of the Boria Stupa is presented in Appendix 4, and Cousens’s 1891 account is presented in Appendix 5.
Cheers
J.
Wow! Great insight. John Bhai. Sorry for late comment. Was busy with my mss.