Category: Workshop of Books

The Jaina Women's Ashram At Sholapur In Jainism, nothwithstanding the rather stringent rules of conduct, there is room for unconventional innovators, male and female. This liberal outlook enhanced by the trust in the potential resourcefulness of human nature can be traced back to Mahavira who was one of the great innovators of his time. He...

The Veerayatan Ashram At Rajgir Offering help to the needy is common to all Jaina sects. The above featured eye camp was conducted by a Digambara community. Some weeks later, at Rajgir in Bihar our last place of sojourn on our way to Parishnatha Hill, we found hos pitable lodging and board in the Vecrayatan...

Eye-Camp For The Poorest Of The Poor A group of Jaina lay people from Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh has raised a sufficient sum of money to conduct a so-called eye-camp. We were invited to join a team of two doctors, one male one female, and their helpers on their way to the camp. After a...

Charitable & Social Tradition In Jainism Do your duty and do it as humanely as you can- this, in brief, is the primary principle of Jainism Vilas A. Sangare When it comes to providing shelter and medical aid to the needy and injured, the Jainas do not distinguish between humans and animals. The first European...

Madhuban & Sammeta Shikhara View of Madhuban at sunset Madhuban, the easternmost Jaina "temple-city', embedded among trees at the foot of Parashnath Hill (better known as Sammeta Shikhara or Sametshikhar), comes to life hours before sunrise. As early as three in the morning the first pilgrims, the youngest safely tied to the back of an...

Pavapuri A pair of footprints, cut from black stone in high relief and enshrined in this scenically situated Mahavira Mandir at Pavapuri, is the austere yet appropriate memorial of Mahavira's attainment of nirvana. Every year at Divali, the day of his death, a big fair of lights is held at Pavapuri. Pavapuri in Bihar is...

Rajgir If some day the world's leading advocates of animal rights should require a suitable site for a monument to commemorate the beginning of what by now has become a world-wide concern of millions of people - the protection of all that lives - Rajgir, anciently Rajagriha, in Bihar would be the place to choose....

Bihar Bihar - a name derived from vihara meaning temple - is the cradle of two great - religions: Buddhism and Jainism, the elder of the two. Its capital Patna, in olden times Pataliputra, was the political centre of India for nearly a millennium, from about 400 BC to 500 AD. Ashoka, the greatest king...

Kutch Circular tour of Jaina sites in the Gujarat District of Kutch. "The off-the-beaten track semi-island of Kutch is a region where age-old customs have only recently been touched by modern civilization. The gates of the walled city of Bhuj - now connected by rail, road and air with the mainland used to be locked...

Girnar Plan of the Neminatha Temple, built in c. 1128. The surrounding devakulikas were added later. The walled enclosure measures 139 metres in length by 58 metres in width. The Neminatha image in the sanctum is of polished black basalt. A special feature of this temple is a panel of 108 well-carved footprints.  Plan of...