Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/87

 season the imposition took, and thousands of Hindus made tlicir oneriiigs new shrine ; and great was their disgust when the fact was afterwards revealed by a learned pandit that the images pertained to the Bhars, who, according to the holy man in question, were in the habit of sacrificing Brahmans to such images as these. "We have in this remark a strong mdication that the Bhars were Jain-Buddhists. Thereafter the images lay unheeded in a dung-heap, till discovered and removed without opposition by Mr. Nicholson, of the Fyzabad Settlement. at the

—

Modern temples. I have already said that there are now several Jain temples at Ajodhya. They were all built about one hundred and fifty years ago, to mark the birth-places of the five hierarchs who are said to have been born there, by one Kesari Singh, a treasurer or servant of Nawab Shuja-ud-daula, whose great influence with that ruler obtained for him permission to build these temples of idolatry even amongst the very mosques and tombs of the faithful. I now give some brief notes on each mandir. No.

1.

To Adindth, the

hierarch. This is situated in the Murai on a mound on which there are many tombs half-way up the mound, and the key is kept by a first

Tola, near the Swargaddwar,

and a mosque.

Musalman who

It is lives close by. *

No. 2. To Ajitndth, the second avatar. This Itaura tank, and contains an idol and inscription.

and

is

No. sarai.

surrounded on 3.

all sides

by

an

situated west of the was built in 1781 S.,'

It

cultivation.

To Abhinandanandth, the

It contains

is

fourth avatar, situated near the

inscription.

No. 4. To Sumantndth, the fifth avatar, within the limits of Ramkot. In this temple there are two idols of Parasnath, one of the two most popular incarnations, and three of Nemn^th. There is an inscription setting forth that the temple was built in Sambat 1781. No.

To Anantandth, the fourteenth

avatar, whose footprint it an inscription, as in the last case, and is situated on the banks of Golaghat Nala, on the high bank of the Gogra, a most 5.

enshrines.

It contains

picturesque

site.

—

Brahman attendant. All these five temples are superintended by a Gaur Brahman, named Ajudhia Pande, who has not yet, he says, joined the Jain sect, although his son has. He justifies his position by saying he is an alien here, and would do anything for a livelihood. He is paid by the representatives of a Sarawag community in Lucknow, Ganeshi Lai and, • The local Musalman tradition is that one Makhdum Shah Juran Ghori (whose descendants still hold property in Ajodhya and take the fees at the Jain shrine) came to Oudh at the end of the twelfth century, with Sultan Shahdb-ud-di'n Ghori, and rid Ajodhya of Adinath, who was then a torment to the people, for which service lands were assigned to him, on which he founded the present Baksaria Tola. Now we know that a temple was dedicated to Admath at Abu, nearly 250 years before that ; so that what Shah Jtiran no doubt did do, was to destroy the mandir that we also know then existed at Ajodhya, sacred to the same Adinath, and to build thereon the Muhammadan edifices which gave to tho mound the name by which it is still known, viz., Shah Juran-ka-Tila.