Jain Pilgrims to benefit from improved amenities at Parasnath Hills
Several hundred thousand Jains go annually on pilgrimage to Parasnath Hills – better know to Jains as Samet Shikhar. It is located about 170 kms from Ranchi in Jharkahand State. They form the highest mountain range south of Himalayas.
Year after year, the pilgrims have suffered from poor accommodation amenities at Parasnath Hills. They have meekly ascribed this suffering as part of the austere ‘tap’ one has to perform on pilgrimage to such an auspicious ‘tirth’ from where twenty Tirthankaras are supposed to have attained moksha.
This suffering looks like coming to an end with two separate bodies undertaking the development work to improve the infrastructure there.
Shri Digambar Jain Saswat Tirthraj Sammedshikhar Trust, a Jain welfare organisation, with an aim to attract the Jain youth to the pilgrimage centre, has embarked on a mega project to set up good quality rest houses, hotels, cafeteria and preaching centres in Madhuban, located in the foot hills of Parasnath Hills.The first phase of the project Digambar Jain Saswat Vihar, a dharamshala called Niharika has already been constructed. This five-storey building with eight suites was inaugurated on February 15. The whole project, expected to be completed by 2011, includes six more wings comprising three buildings having 200 rooms, and a cafeteria. A separate building with accommodation for monks with a special food zone, Aharshala and an upashray are also included in the plans.
The total cost for the project is estimated at Rs 7 crore, however, the pilgrims will be offered the accommodation facilities at greatly subsidised prices.
State Tourism Department of Jharkhand has also realised that over last several years, the number of pilgrims coming to Parasnath Hills, once a must for all Jains, has been dwindling primarily due to poor amenities. To reverse this decline and with the intention to develop the tourism in the state, the Tourism Department is considering building ‘World Class’ facilities.
State Tourism Secretary, A.K. Singh said at the beginning of February, that they are in the process to procure 106 acres of land to start the project in three months. Project plans include a bus stand, a shopping complex, a mediation-and-yoga centre, hotels and an amusement park. He added that “The State government will be sanctioning Rs 50 crore shortly.”
Samet Sikhar is certainly the most important pilgrimage tirth for the Jains of all sects and any improvement to the current lamentable facilities available both at the foot hills and at the temples will certainly encourage more Jains to visit there.
However, let us hope that this sacred site is not used for commercial purposes. It also befalls upon the Jain community, one of the most prosperous in India to alleviate the extreme poverty of the local population. Jains have been visiting Madhuban for centuries, but they have been totally oblivious to primitive conditions there. Madhuban should be a place to which Jains could be the proud visitors, with good modern sanitation, roads, reliable electrical and water supplies. Instead those who have visited Madhuban would know how dismal it looks. It would seem Jain compassion towards other souls is only for preaching not for practicing.
Courtesy Mahavir S Chavan