Page 8 - Shilanyas2

Bhagwaan Parasvnath’s Tonk at sunrise. The Tonk sits majestically atop the highest summit south of the Himalayas. For hundreds of years, it comprised only of a pair of charan paduka on a rock (see below). Later, a temple was built around it. The temple has another set of charans. Below left: Charan in the inner cave. Gentleman in white, Atul Jain of Indore, was on his 100 th yatra this January.

By Jaipat Singh Jain

There is no pilgrimage like Shikharji. There will never be. Jains believe that 20 of our 24 Tirthankars of this cycle of time undertook tapasya and attained moksha here.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of yatris visit this sacred land in the wilderness of Jharkhand. Yet, it is probably not the most visited of Jain pilgrimages. Yatris are deterred by the insecurity or inconvenience of travel or stay, or by the appearance of differences among Jain sects.

This essay presents some photos and findings of a recent field trip by some of Siddhachalam’s volunteers and builds on work being done by Siddhachalam to improve our understanding of this most sacred of pilgrimages. In 2009,

Siddhachalam commissioned a well-known cartographer in India to map Shikharji’s Tonks and placed that map in the public domain. The results of that exercise, together with review of satellite images and field trip, validated a belief that the layout of Siddhachalam mirrors the layout atop the summit of Shikharji.

In our most recent field trip made in January this year, we completed the task of ascertaining the coordinates of each Tonk of Shikharji, including its elevation, latitude, longitude, direction, among other details.

Siddhachalam’s objective is to faithfully replicate Shikharji’s trails and Tonk without losing sight of Acharya Sushil Kumarji’s lofty vision of bringing together all who believe in the message of the Jinas. It seeks to bring