Days 57 to 64 – Jain Pilgrimage tour
Day 57 – Sunday, 22nd Dec 2013 to Day 64 – Sunday, 29th Dec 2013
This post is a week long description of our Jain pilgrimage tour with organizer – Sh. Pravin Bhai Lodaya of [Savla and Lodaya] group.
We have so far toured alone, managed our own transport, food and lodging but for a week, we joined another tour and it was a good break. Call it a mini vacation within our grand vacation. We had the luxury of group travel, well facilitated rooms at Jain Dharamshalas, comfortable bus travel and tasty Jain food at our service.
It’s Sunday 22nd Dec 10:30 am, Calcutta Mail from Mumbai arrives at Parasnath station and the entire entourage of 75 people alight here. Khyati’s parents have joined us for this part of our journey. It’s an hour bus ride from Parasnath to Madhuban which is the foothills of Shikhar ji mountains. Shikharji is the most sacred site for Jains and story has it that 20 of our Tirthankars (God Incarnation) attained Nirvana at this place. Each of us Jains have the urge to visit this site once in our lifetime.
wall painting at Parasnath station
We check into our Jain Dharamshala and post lunch, we visit some Jain temples and museums in the town center. Tomorrow, we are planning to climb the hill and the total distance to cover is 27 kms. At first, we dread the thought of walking so many kilometers and whether we will be able to manage? Well, we are up for the challenge and come what may, we will face it.
It’s 7:30 pm and post dinner, Sh. Pravin Bhai gives us instructions for the next day. We plan to leave at 4 am and begin the hill climb. The initial distance of 9 kms to the first temple needs to be covered in 3 hours.
It’s Monday morning 4 am, we have begun our ascend. It’s still dark outside, all 4 of us have torches and we slowly walk up the hill. The road is partially paved and there are occasional steps to climb and we maintain a continuous pace. It’s 5:30 am and we pass a water fall. This marks our half way journey. We have traveled 4.5 kms and have another 4.5 kms to go. The next half is a steep climb with continuous steps. Many people listen to devotional songs on their way up. It’s 7:30 am and we have reached our first pit stop – Gautam Swami Mandir. Post breakfast, Pravin Bhai has a route planned for us to visit all 31 temples on the hill.
Shikhar ji mountains
Main temple on the hill – Jal Mandir
It’s 5:30 pm and we are at the last Jain temple – Parasnath mandir and have dinner there. It’s pitch dark outside as we begin our descend down. All of us are tired but we share some stories and make the walk fun. We reach the Dharamshala by 8:45 pm and get some much needed oil massages. This would help assuage the amount of soreness our legs feel.
Jain pilgrimage site route
It’s Tuesday morning 6:00 am, we need some more sleep but Pravin Bhai has other plans. He personally walks to each room and wakes people up by his distinctive door knock and whistle. We need to get used to this wake up alarm, Khyati and I mumble to each other.
Post breakfast, we hop in the bus and head to Rujvalika. Rujvalika is the site where Lord Mahavir (24th Jain Tirthankar) attained (Keval Gyaan) ultimate knowledge on the banks of Lake Rujvalika.
on the banks of Rujvalika
We visit the temple and nearby lake area. It’s 11:30 am and we now have a 7 hour bus journey to Champapuri in Bhagalpur district. The roads are awful and unfortunately as we got the last seats, we were in for a bumpy ride. Enroute, we stop for lunch and dinner and reach Champapuri by 7:30 pm. We check into our rooms and relax for the night.
It’s Wednesday morning 7:30 am, we visit the Jain temple near our Dharamshala. I step out and decide to take a walk in the local town. The first sight was locals bathing using a hose pipe. It was fun to watch as 4-5 male members of the family showered using this.
showering using a hosepipe
Later in the afternoon, we visit 4 other Jain temples in the town. Many of these Jain temples are over 100-200 years old and we admire the architecture and carvings at these temples. Bhagalpur is also famous for cloth yarn and there are lots of factories for it. We visit a factory and watch them make cloth yarn. Khyati tried her hand at it. She was good!
at the yarn factory
Tomorrow, we have an early morning bus journey to Kakandi tirth. Did I say early? Pravin Bhai had instructed us that we will be woken up at 2:30 am and buses will depart sharp at 3 am. We had a 5 hour journey to Kakandi. There is a very ancient Jain temple and we were off to offer our prayers there.
It’s Thursday morning 8 am, our buses stop on the main road near Kakandi and we take auto rickshaws to the Jain temple. The road is a village road and only one vehicle one way can drive at a time.
Khyati and her mom with our tour sign
parents
We spend the entire morning in Kakandi and post lunch, we depart for Guniyaji tirth. It’s 4 hours drive and we have evening dinner enroute.
Guniyaji is the temple site of Gautam Swami – Lord Mahavir’s first disciple. We check into our rooms in the Jain Dharamshala and call it a night around 9 pm. I sleep as soon as I hit the sack.
It’s Friday morning 5:30 am, all of us have assembled in the downstairs hall and we head to Kshatriya kund. It’s an hour and half journey from Guniyaji and there is a Jain temple on top of a hill. We alight from our buses as we get to the foothill area and begin our climb. Long wooden sticks are quite handy and we rent a few to assist us in the climb. This climb was nothing compared to the one we did in Shikhar ji a few days back hence we could not complain. The route is 9 kms back and forth and we reach the temple by 9 am. We shower there and offer our prayers at the temple. The temple is beautiful. I wonder how and why did people build temples in such far away land? Most of these places where temples are present used to be empires and large townships existed during the older times but over time, the empires have been beaten by foreign kings, lands were captured and destroyed and what remained in these ruins are the temples. Most of these temples are still intact and Jains worldwide have taken on restoration work to preserve these beautiful places of worship.
Jain temple
enroute to temple in Kshatriya kund
Kshatriya kund is a land of 7 rivers and we cross 7 water falls as we walk back to the foothill.
It’s 5:30 pm and post dinner, we head back to Guniyaji tirth and call it a night around 10 pm.
It’s Saturday morning 6 am, we plan to tour Rajgir today. Rajgir is the holy site for 3 religions – Jains, Buddhists and Hindus. There are many temples and many tourists flank this area. Being a Saturday, Rajgir was crowded and our buses arrive in the city centre by 7:30 am.
Jain temple, Rajgir
Lord Mahavir statue on Rajgir hills
Rajgir has 5 hills and there are Jain temples on each of these 5 hills. It would have been great if we could climb all 5 hills but due to time restrictions, we aim to climb 2 hills. Pravin Bhai promises us that these two hills are the final hills we have to climb for this tour and we can stop worrying about having to ascend any more mountains. The weather was a bit chilly as we began the climb at 8 am but soon, all of our sweaters were tied to our waists. We climb Hill 5 first, offer our prayers at the 4 temples on this hill and climb down. Right opposite Hill 5 is Hill 1 and we begin our climb on this hill. It’s 2 pm and we have visited all the temples on these two hills and are having some much needed lunch. Post lunch, we visit Veerayatan – it’s a non profit organization working towards the upliftment of poor people in desolate areas of India. We admire their work and watch an exhibition of their current projects. On our way back, we visit a Japanese temple and it has a beautiful gold statue of Lord Buddha. Post dinner, we head back to Guniyaji and call it a night around 9:30 pm.
It’s Sunday, a week has passed, someone has rightly said – time runs quickly when you are having fun.
It’s 10 am Sunday and we check out from Guniyaji and head to Pavapuri in our bus. Pavapuri has a very beautiful Jal Mandir – Jain temple in the middle of a lake. Post that, we visit the oldest university that ever existed. Nalanda University. Story has it that in the ancient times – students from Turkey, China and faraway lands came here to learn new arts. The university has now been turned into a museum and we visit the site along with a guide.
at Nalanda university with Jash
Air walking in Nalanda university
It’s 6:30 pm and post dinner, we get on the bus. The Savla and Lodaya group party including our parents head to Varanasi while we get off in Gaya and take an overnight train to Kolkata.
Gaya to Kolkata
This tour wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for Sh. Pravin Bhai Lodaya. A wonderful human being.
organizer – Sh. Pravin Bhai Lodaya
Hope you enjoyed this week long tour with us. Next destination – Kolkata and we spend the New Years there. We are excited.
Please drop your comments for this post.
Best wishes,
Paras