The Jain temples in the old part of Ahmedabad (within the walled part) had fallen in to a state of utter neglect. Moved by this sorry sight, Sadhvi Maitri Ratna Shriji resolved to reinstate these temples to their former glory through Ahmedabad Jain devotees.
Through her inspiration, Jinalay Shikaran Parivar Rajnagar(JSPR) was created over four months ago. Its first task was to assess how many of the temples needed cleaning and then how many people would be required to undertake the work.
They had a very effective recruitment campaign for volunteers and had gathered a force of over 10,000 volunteers! These volunteers were divided in to several teams – each team allocated one or more temples to be cleaned on August 19th.
Altogether 111 temples were cleaned and over 12000 Jain idols were bathed and cleaned in one day. Old ornaments, dresses, decorations and puja materials were replaced by new ones
Never before in the history there has been such an event where so many temples were cleaned and restored on such a scale in one day.
Nirvan Shah, a member of JSPR explained the reason for the temples having fallen into neglect : that most of the murti pujak Jain population had moved away from the old city to the newer parts and no one was left behind to maintain the temples.
Many of the temples cleaned were over 100 years old, the oldest being Shri Chintamani Parswanath Derasar in Rajpur which is over 450 years old. Other prominent temples cleaned included Shri Shambhavnath Jinalay in Kalupur and Adishwar Bhagwan Jinalay and Ajitnath Bhagwan Jinalay in Jhaveriwad.
Sadhvi Maitri Ratna Shriji deserves our humble gratitude and congratulations for inspiring the restoration of our proud heritage. JSPR has to be congratulated for their magnificient effort in getting 10,000 volunteers together and organising such a massive task – all in one day. Of course the volunteers who did such an excellent job purely through their devotion to Jain Shasan have to be thanked immensely.
Credit Making Jainism Visible in the Digital Age