Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/88

 AJO

10 GhSsi L^l.

Sarawag

is

the ordinary lay

name

for a Jain,

and meang

It seems that the Jains select Gaur Brahmans as literally a hearer. spiritual guides, because they do not eat fish or flesh, or drink wine.

But, in addition to these five Digambari temples there is a sixth or Sitambari mandir, dedicated also to the first avatdr, Ajitnath, by Udai Chand Oswal of Jaipur, and in the keeping of his priest, Khushal Chand Jati. It is situated in the Alamganj Muhalla, and was built in It contains images of Ajitnath in pink stone, of the Sambat 1881.

and

(panch-tirtha)

shrines,

five

in

metal,

besides

holy

footprints,

&c.,

commemorates nineteen events connected with the conception, and rehnquishment of the world of the five avatars born at

it

birth,

Ajodhya. five Ajodhya hierarchs belonged) according to the etymology of the word, The Sitambari sect again worship those who are clothed in space alone. covered figures, or, etymologically, those who are clothed in garments.

The Digambari

sect (to

which the

worship only naked images,

The

Maniparbat.

—The

or,

Brahmanical tradition

about

this

mound,

of which was Chattarban, is, that when Kama was waging his Ceylon war, Lachhman was wounded by a poisoned arrow. Hanoman, the monkey-god, was despatched through the air to fetch an antidote from the Himalayas. Unfortunately the messenger forgot the

the ancient

name

herb, but to make amends he carried off a whole mountain his hand, feeling certain that the antidote would be there. As he returned bearing the mountain over Ajodhya in mid-air, a clod fell therefrom, which is no other than the Maniparbat. Mr. It Hunter, I think, relates a similar tradition amongst the Santals. was always represented as is from this legend that the monkey-god bearing a rock in his hand.

name

in the

of the

palm

of

General Cunningham describes the Maniparbat as an artificial mound, with broken bricks and blocks of kankar. The common people in these days call the mount the Orajhar or Jhawwajhar, both expressions indicating basket-shakings, and they say that the m.ound was raised by the accumulated basket-shakings of the laborers who built Ramkot. The same tale is told of the similar mounds at Sahet Mahet, at Benares, and at other places. This moimd General Cunningham points out as the stupa' of Asoka, two hundred feet in height, built on the spot where Buddha preached the law during his six years' residence here. That officer infers that the earthen or lower part of the moulid may belong to the earlier ages of Buddhism, and that the masonry part was added by Asoka. sixty-five feet in height, covered

'

Rdja Nanda Bardhan, ofMagadha.

—

I have repeatedly been assured by Singh that within the present century an inscription was discovered buried in this mound, which ascribed its construction to Raja Nanda Bardhan of the Magadha dynasty, who once held sway here.* The

Mahardja

Man

establishinent of the non-caste system adopted by society generally, wh^u the population at large were denominated Bhars.
 * This man is accredited with the suppression of Brahmanism in Ajodhya, and "With the