11. Temple and car festival.
The Jains display great zeal in the construction of temples in which the images of the Tirthakārs are enshrined. The temples are commonly of the same fashion as those of the Hindus, with a short, roughly conical spire tapering to a point at the apex, but they are frequently adorned with rich carved stone and woodwork. There are fine collections of temples at Muktagiri in Betūl, Kundalpur in Damoh, and at Mount Abu, Girnar, the hill of Parasnāth in Chota Nāgpur, and other places in India. The best Jain temples are often found in very remote spots, and it is suggested that they were built at times when the Jains had to hide in such places to avoid Hindu persecution. And wherever a community of Jain merchants of any size has been settled for a generation or more several fine temples will probably be found. A Jain Bania who has grown rich considers the building of one or more temples to be the best method of expending his money and acquiring religious merit, and some of them spend all their fortune in this manner before their death. At the opening of a new temple the rath or chariot festival should be held. Wooden cars are made, sometimes as much as five stories high, and furnished with chambers for the images of the Tirthakārs. In these the idols of the hosts and all the guests are placed. Each car should be drawn by two elephants, and the procession of cars moves seven times round the temple or pavilion erected for the ceremony. For building a temple and performing this ceremony honorary and hereditary titles are conferred. Those who do it once receive the designation of Singhai; for carrying it out twice they become Sawai Singhai; and on a third occasion Seth. In such a ceremony performed at Khurai in Saugor one of the participators was already a Seth, and in recognition of his great liberality a new title was devised and he became Srimant Seth. It is said, however, that if the car breaks and the elephants refuse to move, the title becomes derisive and is either ‘Lule Singhai,’ the lame one, or ‘Arku Singhai,’ the stumbler. If no elephants are available and the car has to be dragged by men, the title given is Kadhore Singhai.
Jain gods in attitude of contemplation
12. Images of the Tirthakārs.
In the temples are placed the images of Tirthakārs, either of brass, marble, silver or gold. The images may be small or life-size or larger, and the deities are represented in a sitting posture with their legs crossed and their hands lying upturned in front, the right over the left, in the final attitude of contemplation prior to escape from the body and attainment of paradise. There may be several images in one temple, but usually there is only one, though a number of temples are built adjoining each other or round a courtyard. The favourite Tirthakārs found in temples are Rishab Deva, the first; Anantnāth, the fourteenth; Santnāth, the sixteenth; Nemnāth, the twenty-second; Pārasnāth, the twenty-third; and Vardhamāna or Mahāvīra, the twenty-fourth.[13] As already stated only Mahāvīra and perhaps Parasnāth, his preceptor, were real historical personages, and the remainder are mythical. It is noticeable that to each of the Tirthakārs is attached a symbol, usually in the shape of an animal, and also a tree, apparently that tree under which the Tirthakār is held to have been seated at the time that he obtained release from the body. And these animals and trees are in most cases those which are also revered and held sacred by the Hindus. Thus the sacred animal of Rishab Deva is the bull, and his tree the banyan; that of Anantnāth is the falcon or bear, and his tree the holy Asoka;[14] that of Santnāth is the black-buck or Indian antelope, and his tree the tun or cedar;[15] the symbol of Nemnāth is the conch shell (sacred to Vishnu), but his tree, the vetasa, is not known; the animal of Pārasnāth is the serpent or cobra and his tree the dhātaki;[16] and the animal of Mahāvīra is the lion or tiger and his tree the teak tree. Among the symbols of the other Tirthakārs are the elephant, horse, rhinoceros, boar, ape, the Brāhmani duck, the moon, the pīpal tree, the lotus and the swastik figure; and among their trees the mango, the jāmun[17] and the champak.[18] Most of these animals and trees are sacred to the Hindus, and the elephant, boar, ape, cobra and tiger were formerly worshipped themselves, and are now attached to the principal Hindu gods. Similarly the asoka, pīpal, banyan and mango trees are sacred, and also the Brāhmani duck and the swastik sign. It cannot be supposed that the Tirthakārs simply represent the deified anthropomorphic emanations from these animals, because the object of Vardhamāna’s preaching was perhaps like that of Buddha to do away with the promiscuous polytheism of the Hindu religion. But nevertheless the association of the sacred animals and trees with the Tirthakārs furnished a strong connecting link between them and the Hindu gods, and considerably lessens the opposition between the two systems of worship. The god Indra is also frequently found sculptured as an attendant guardian in the Jain temples. The fourteenth Tirthakār, Anantnāth, is especially revered by the people because he is identified with Gautama Buddha.
13. Religious observances.
The priest of a Jain temple is not usually a Yati or ascetic, but an ordinary member of the community. He receives no remuneration and carries on his business at the same time. He must know the Jain scriptures, and makes recitations from them when the worshippers are assembled. The Jain will ordinarily visit a temple and see the god every morning before taking his food, and his wife often goes with him. If there is no temple in their own town or village they will go to another, provided that it is within a practicable distance. The offerings made at the temple consist of rice, almonds, cocoanuts, betel-leaves, areca, dates, cardamoms, cloves and similar articles. These are appropriated by the Hindu Māli or gardener, who is the menial servant employed to keep the temple and enclosures clean. The Jain will not take back or consume himself anything which has been offered to the god. Offerings of money are also made, and these go into the bhandār or fund for maintenance of the temple. The Jains observe fasts for the last week before the new moon in the months of Phāgun (February), Asārh (June) and Kārtik (October). They also fast on the second, fifth, eighth, eleventh and fourteenth days in each fortnight of the four months of the rains from Asārh to Kārtik, this being in lieu of the more rigorous fast of the ascetics during the rains. On these days they eat only once, and do not eat any green vegetables. After the week’s fast at the end of Kārtik, at the commencement of the month of Aghan, the Jains begin to eat all green vegetables.
Jain temple in Seoni