Shatrunjaya

Shatrunjaya or Shetrunjaya ("place of victory against inner enemies") originally Pundarikgiri), are hills located by the city of Palitana, in Bhavnagar district, Gujarat, India. They are situated on the banks of the Shetrunji River at an elevation 164 feet (50 m) above sea level. These hills have similarities to other hills where Jain temples have been built in Bihar, Gwalior, Mount Abu and Girnar.

Quotes

• James Tod (1782-1835), who visited Shatrunjay, wrote of the main temple of Adinatha,
  On the left hand on entering the area, is a spot peculiarly sacred to all of this faith, where Adna’th used to sit in adoration of the ‘One God,’ when the mountain-top, with no canopy but the sky, was his sole place of worship. A Raen tree still marks the site, and is firmly believed by the faithful to be a never-dying scion of that which shaded the first of their prophets, and which now overshadows his sanctified padwa. He could not have selected a spot more calculated to assist the mind’s devotion, and elevate it, ‘through Nature, up to Nature’s God.’ The prospect was sublime...
  • (Tod 1839: 286-287). in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history.180

• A.K. Forbes (1821-1865), who came to India in 1843 and spent most of his time in western India, described the site and its desecration,
  The holy mountain of Shutroonjye, sacred to Adeenath, the first of the twenty-four hierophants of the Jains... Shutroonjye is one of the most ancient and sacred shrines of the Jain religion. It is described as the first of places of pilgrimages... The temples on Shutroonjye were afterwards destroyed by barbarians and for a long time desolation reigned in the holy mountain.
  • A.K. Forbes 1878: 4-7). in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history.180

• Henry Cousens observed miniature masonry idgahs in front of the tower of the Adinatha temple, as well as above the south corridor, and the adjoining temple. According to him, Jains claimed to have built the idgahs themselves to protect the temple from Muhammadans! They had learnt that it was contrary to Islam to destroy an idgah or mosque once built. If the Adinatha temple was destroyed, it would fall on the idgah. Cousens observed,
  From this it would seem that sad experience prompted the Jains to have recourse to this artifice to prevent a repetition of what had already happened.
  • Henry Cousens quoted from Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history.181

• He (Henry Cousens) noticed that the nose of the Adinatha image had been broken, and was “replaced by a gold one.” The Muhammadans were known to cut off the noses of images. He saw many “undoubtedly old images in the cells of the corridors with particularly flat noses.” On examination he noted that the noses had been refashioned into the face,
  ..to get sufficient protuberance for the new ones; they might be termed countersunk noses. The lips too, which are, as a rule, prominent, are in these, flattened and mis-shapened. The old simhasanas (old marble image-seats), also, have been woefully mutilated; and, from the fact that none of them is in its original position, it would appear that whole shrines were pulled down (Cousens 1931: 76).
  • Henry Cousens quoted from Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history.181