Complete Ancient History | Jain Philosophy | Lec-11 | UPSC CSE 2025 | Indian History | Alok Ojha

Hi, this is Alok Hoja. Welcome back to Ancient Indian History series. We have already discussed about the introduction to Jainism. Today we are going to discuss about important Jain temples, nine tattwas of Jainism which is one of the core philosophies of Jainism, Ashtamangal or eight auspicious symbols of Jainism and important Jain councils. Guys, you have a query about one important aspect that I haven't covered Indus Valley Civilization. Don't worry, very soon a video on Indus Valley Civilization would be coming and secondly, all the PDFs are available on the Telegram channel history underscore Alok Hoja. So, you can get the PDF from there. Okay. So, without wasting any more time, let's begin with today's session and today we are going to discuss about these topics concerning Jainism. Okay. Let's. Important Jain temples. So, let's discuss about the important Jain temples. The first one is Palitana Jain temple. Now, usually there is a possibility that UPSC can ask a question particularly in the form of match the following. Correct. Like on one side you will have the Jain temples, on the other side you will have the locations. Match the following or which among the following are correctly matched, which among the following are incorrectly matched. So, the questions can crop up in this manner. So, although it's a bit factual but we need to study about this and I'll also tell you a very interesting story about the Bahubali statue which is located in Shravan Bela Gola. Okay. Stick to the video till the end. Palitana Jain temple. Now, Palitana Jain temple, it is located in Shatrunjaya hills in Gujarat. Shatrunjaya basically means one who has conquered his enemies. It is believed that in Shatrunjaya hills there are more than small small small 800 Jain temples but the major temple is dedicated to Rishabh Nath Ji or Adinath Ji. The first Tirthankar as per Jainism and the symbol of Rishabh Nath Ji or Adinath Ji was a bull. Now, it is believed that every Tirthankar, almost every Tirthankar out of 24 Tirthankar have visited the Shatrunjaya hill except one Tirthankar. That is Neminath. Neminath who was a 22nd Tirthankar as per Jainism, he has not visited the Shatrunjaya hills. Okay. So, I'll repeat the points again. Palitana Jain temple, it is located on Shatrunjaya hills in Gujarat. It is visited by every Tirthankar except the 22nd Tirthankar Neminath. It is also believed that the main temple is dedicated to the first Tirthankar Rishabh Nath Ji or Adinath Ji. Then comes Dilwara Jain temple, a very famous Jain temple. It is located in Rajasthan particularly around the region of Mount Abu. It was being constructed by a Chalukyan dynasty ruler whose name was Vimal Shah and this temple is constructed in white marble. So, this is one of the important stories about the, what we say, Palitana Jain temple and the temple located in Mount Abu. Now, let's talk about Pavapuri Jain temple. I have told you previously itself about the entire story of Vardhaman Mahavir Ji in the previous video. Vardhaman Mahavir Ji, he renounced his worldly life at the age of 30. He left his kingdom which was located in Kundgram near Vaishali. He completely renounced his worldly life. He gave all his ornaments, his clothes to his brother, elder brother named as Nandi Vardhan and for the next 12 years, he lived the life of an ascetic or a wanderer and finally at the age of 42, he attained the true knowledge that is the Gyan and now it is believed that he attained the true knowledge at a place called as Jrimbhrik Gram in Bihar on the banks of river Rijupalika. After that, he delivered multiple sermons across different places in India, particularly the northern part of India and it is believed as per Jain scriptures that he has delivered around 55 sermons or pravachans and he has answered multiple questions. He died at the age of 72 at a place called as Pavapuri which is located in Bihar and many Jain scriptures believe that the place where Vardhaman Mahavir Ji, the 24th Tirthankar whose symbol was lion had died, a temple was being constructed by his elder brother whose name was Nandi Vardhan and that temple is referred as Pavapuri Jain temple. It is also called as Jal Mandir. Why it is called as Jal Mandir? Because in front of the temple, one can observe a water body, particularly a small lake or a pond which is full of white lotus which symbolizes prosperity. So, it is also referred as what Jal Mandir and built by whom? The elder brother of Vardhaman Mahavir Ji whose name was Nandi Vardhan. It is built completely in white marble. Now, let's understand about the Bahubali statue. This is not about the movie Bahubali. Bahubali statue, now it is one of the most revered figures in the history of Jainism. It is a statue 58 to 60 feet long statue. It is a monolith. It is carved out of a single rock and it is located in Shravanbela Gula, Karnataka and there is a very beautiful story associated with the Bahubali statue which is located in Shravanbela Gula, Karnataka. Now, let's understand the story in short. The first Tirthankar of Jainism was Rishabhnath or Adinath. After a particular point of time, he handed over his kingdom to his two sons. One was Bharath, the elder son and the younger one was Bahubali and then after handing over the kingdom to his two sons, he moved into the jungles and lived life of an ascetic. He completely renounced his worldly life. It is believed that the two sons had their own independent kingdoms Bharath and Bahubali. One fine day, Bharath sent one of his envoy to the court of Bahubali and asked Bahubali to surrender to him and accept his suzerainty. Bahubali, the younger brother, he said, you are my elder brother. My entire kingdom I will submit to you if you could have requested but if I meekly submit the entire kingdom, people will laugh at me. They will say, a person who cannot protect his kingdom or the person who cannot protect his throne, what will he protect his people? So, I am ready to fight a war with my brother but I won't accept his sojournity. The war became inevitable. The war became unavoidable between the two brothers Bharath and Bahubali. Both had a very huge army full of elephants, horses, cavalrymen, infantry and so on. The minister was a very intelligent personality. He knew that if both the massive armies fight against each other, there would be huge loss of men and money both. So, why not both the brothers fight with each other? In that way, they can save basically the men and money as well and secondly, they can decide the winner. There were three kind of yudh or there were three kind of battle between both the brothers. Netaryudh, Mallayudh and Jallayudh which was fought in the mud, which was fought in the river stream and finally, Bahubali emerged victorious. The word Bahubali basically means one with strong arms. After becoming victorious, Bahubali realized one thing. My father, he has renounced his worldly life for the betterment of the people, to know the truth, to learn about himself and we both, what we say, we both his sons are fighting for the petty kingdom. He completely gave the kingdom to his brother and he went into the jungles for meditation. As per Jain scriptures, it is believed that he continuously meditated for one year in Kayotsarga position. I repeat, he continuously meditated for one year in Kayotsarga position but still he could not attain enlightenment or true knowledge. One fine day, his brother Bharat came wandering into the jungles and searching for Bahubali. Finally, when he met his brother, it is believed that he attained enlightenment and moved towards the region of Kailash, Mount Kailash. This is one part of the story. Now, second part of the story, very interesting again. Please listen to it so that we can correlate both the parts of the stories. Around the region of Karnataka, there was a dynasty whose name was Gangavasi dynasty and Gangavasi dynasty's Prime Minister or Senapati was Chamunda Rai. Now, Chamunda Rai's mother had a dream or she had a desire to visit the place where continuously Bahubali had meditated for one year in Kayotsarga position. Now, it is believed that she along with her son Chamunda Rai, they started moving towards the place where Bahubali had attained enlightenment. On the way, it is believed that she stopped at a particular place. She was and when she had a small sleep, she saw in the dream that there are two hills. Vindagiri is one of the hills and if one stands on the opposite side of the hill, like suppose this is one part of the hill, this is second hill. If one stands on this hill and shoots an arrow on the other hill, he can see the image of Bahubali. As soon as she came out of her dream, she told about this dream to her son. Her son did the same. He stood on the one part of the hill, he shot an arrow on the other part of the hill and he saw the image of Bahubali. Now, he decided that he is going to construct a statue of Bahubali after carving out that mountain, cutting that mountain. It is believed that it took almost around 20 years to 22 years to carve out the statue of Bahubali. Now, the time had come to perform Maha Mastak Abhishekam. Now, he was very curious to perform Maha Mastak Abhishek. 1008 Kalash were brought full of water, ghee, turmeric, chandan, milk to perform the Abhishek. Now, Abhishek is only complete when the water or the product that has been brought, it flows from the head to toe. But the water or the product, it couldn't flow below the chest. He was very confused what to do now. As per legends, there is a local deity in Karnataka also referred as Kushmanda Devi. Now, Kushmanda Devi, she came up like an old lady and she had a very small, what we say, earthen vessel. And in that small earthen vessel, she did the Maha Mastak Abhishekam of the statue of Bahubali. And the water flowed directly from the head to the toe. And when the water flowed, it is believed that a white water body was formed just below the toe of Bahubali. And that in Kannada language is called as Belagola. Hence, this place came to be known as Shavan Belagola. And the statue of Bahubali, it is located in Shavan Belagola, Karnataka. Every year, every 12 years, there is a Jain congregation at this place. Like in Hinduism, we have Maha Kumbh. Excuse me. We have Maha Kumbh or we have Kumbh which is arranged at four places across India within a span of 12 years. That is Nasik on the banks of river Godavari, Ujjain on the banks of river Shipra, Haridwar on the banks of river Ganges and Allahabad or Prayagraj on the banks of river Ganges or Ganga. Correct? Similarly, there is Maha Mastak Abhishekam done at Shavan Belagola after every 12 years. It is the largest Jain congregation. So such was the beautiful story of Bahubali or the Bahubali statue located in Shavan Belagola, Karnataka. Wasn't the story interesting? Let's move further. Ranakpur Jain temple, it is just a factual part. It is located in Rajasthan. Lodhruv Jain temple, Jaisalmer, it is located again in Rajasthan, dedicated to 23rd Tirthankar Parshivnath Ji whose symbol was snake. In the previous session, we have discussed about this, about the five cardinal principles of Jainism. Correct? Satya, Ahinsa, Asteya, Aparigriha and Brahmacharya. Only the last principle of Brahmacharya was given by the 24th Tirthankar, that is Vardhaman Mahaveer. The initial four, Satya, Ahinsa, Asteya and Aparigriha was given by 23rd Tirthankar Parshivnath Ji. Malla Gurudev Jain temple, it is located in Tamil Nadu. It was built by Chola dynasty ruler and it is dedicated to Mallinath, the 19th Tirthankar. Now pay attention carefully. As discussed earlier, there are two sects of Jainism. One is Digambar and the other one is Shwetambar. As per Digambar sect, all the 24 Tirthankars are male and they believe that females cannot attain Moksha. Whereas, Shwetambars, as per Shwetambar, all the Tirthankars are male except the 19th Tirthankar Mallibai or Mallinath and she was referred as Mallibai. She was a female as per Shwetambar. So as per Digambar, Mallinath was a male. As per Shwetambar, Mallinath was a female and was referred as Mallibai. A temple in Tamil Nadu is dedicated to Mallinath, that is Malla Gurudev Jain temple. Ayyolan Badami caves located in Karnataka, specifically dedicated to Jainism. Ellora caves located in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra. So it is dedicated to whom? It is dedicated to Jainism. Please do not get confused with Ajanta caves. Ajanta caves are solely and solely dedicated to Buddhism. And Ellora caves are dedicated to Buddhism, Jainism as well as Hinduism. Got the points clear? And Khandagiri and Udaigiri caves located in Utkal region, that is around the region of Odisha. So these are the important Jain temples, important from the exam perspective. Now let's understand one of the core philosophies of Jainism within next 5 to 10 minutes. 9 tattvas or the 9 truths of Jainism. Now as per different Jain scriptures, some believe that there are 7 tattvas and some believe that there are 9 tattvas. So what are the 9 tattvas? Let's understand this philosophy. Now although it's a complex philosophy, I'll try to make it a bit simpler for you guys. Now 9 tattvas or the 9 truths and what are these truths? Jeev, Ajiv, Punya. I will explain all of them, don't worry. Jeev, Ajiv, Punya, Paap, Bandh, Asrav, Tamvar, Nirjara and Moksha. These are the 9 tattvas. Now before I explain the 9 tattvas to you guys, just listen to me very carefully. Suppose you are on island A and now you have to go on island B and there's a water body in between. You have a boat, okay. You're on island A, you have to go to island B and there's a water body between and you have a boat. Now initially you observe one thing and what did you observe? That there is a hole in the boat at this point. Now you completely ignore that hole and after ignoring that hole, you take your boat into the water. After some time, the water starts entering into the boat and now it has reached such a level that the probability is that the boat might capsize, correct. Now let's come back to this philosophy. Now initially you won't be understanding things but just stick to the video, you'll understand each and everything. Now Jeev and Ajiv. Jeev basically means living beings. Ajiv means non-living beings. Jeev has soul and soul is characterized by one important thing and that is what? Consciousness, correct. And it is believed that soul takes birth as per the stock of the karmas. I'll give you a very simple example. Suppose this is a swastika. So what does the four dots in the swastika symbolize or signify? The four dots in the swastika signify the status of your soul depending upon the stock of your karmas. If you have performed good karmas throughout your life, your soul would be in heaven or you would be reborn as a lower being. But suppose if one performs bad karmas throughout his life, his soul would be in hell or he would be reborn as a lower being, correct. So this is nothing but the cycle of birth and death and this is called as transmigration of soul, correct. So every Jeev or soul has to undergo through this process and soul is characterized by one important thing and that is consciousness, correct. But the consciousness differs from being to being. I'll give you a very small example. We are human beings. We have higher level of wisdom and consciousness in comparison to a dog. So in that case, that is Jeev. Ajiv, non-soul, these are the five tattwas but Jeev and Ajiv are interacting with each other. Punya and Paap. Punya basically means influx of good karmas, correct. Like we live in a society wherein we perform charitable activities.