Jains lose custody battle of stolen idol of Lord Mahavira

New Delhi, March 18:

The efforts of three Jain temple committees to get a stolen idol of Lord Mahavira for offering prayers did not succeed in a Delhi court which trashed the claim saying it did not belong to them and was the court's property until disposal of the case.

"It (stolen idol) is the case property in the present FIR and its production is very essential for the prosecution case and in such a situation, it would not be appropriate to release the same on the 'superdari' (conditional release)" Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Nivedita Anil Sharma said.

The court said that being followers of the Jain religion did not make the claimants the real owners of the idol.

"Merely because the revisionists are followers of the Jain religion and pray to Lord Mahavira, 24th Trithankar, it cannot be said that the idol should be released in their favour," the court said, adding they were not its owners prior to the alleged theft.

The capital-based Shri Digamber Jain Mandir Management Committee, 1008 Shri Parshvanath Digamber Jain Mandir and Shree Vardman Digamber Jain Mandir Sabha had filed petitions after being denied possession of the idol by a lower court.

The ASJ, however, said the Metropolitan Magistrate may give its custody to the Centre or Archaeological Survey of India in order to maintain and preserve it.

The idol of Lord Mahavira was recovered from accused Manoj Kumar at Maurice Nagar Police station here in 2006 and a case of theft was registered.

The temple committees had approached the court seeking its custody on 'superdari' saying "the Jain community prays to and worships Lord Mahavira and the idol rightfully belonged to them ... it may be handed over to them for performing puja."

The court rejected the claim and said "even otherwise, it is yet to be established if the idol recovered is actually that of Lord Mahavira."

"The committees have not shown anything which could indicate that the right to hold the possession of the idol is vested in them as it is apparently neither they nor the person from whom the idol was stolen are the owner," it said.

The court held that the police, which has to prove the offence of theft and the antique nature of the idol during the trial, was the rightful owner.

11th century Jain statue found

Kshitiz Gaur,TNN

AJMER: A medium-sized black stone statue of 17th Jain Tirth-ankar Kuntunath, dating back to 11th century, has emerged during excavations in holy town of Pushkar, about 15 kms from here.

The statue is one of the more than 36 statues found in last one year at old Pushkar and Ghat areas of the region. The discoveries con-firms of a religious congregation being held at the place some time in the medieval period.

Eighteen more such statues have been discovered in old Pushkar alone, including a Shivling of nearly one thousand year old, rare statue of god Kartikeya, statue of Vishnu and more Jain Tirthankar statues.

The statue of Jain Tirthankar Kuntunath in a meditating posture appeared when renovation work was going on at the famous Varaha temple in Pushkar. It bears characteristics of Jain architecture - curly hair, sharp features on face, etc. The style of meditation is also peculiar of Jain philosophy.

The statues have been kept in the government museum at Akbar Fort in Ajmer. Archaeologists and historians are studying different perspectives of new scripts of Chouhan dynasty of 11th century.

Two months ago, more than 20 statues were found during construction work on a personal land near Jat Vishramsthali behind the famous Bramha temple. The work containing scriptures in Ingal and Pingal, local dialects spoken during 10th century, and representing the meditation postures, dates between 6th and 11th centuries.

"These new discovery shows that Jainism flourished well at the time of Hindu ruler Prithvi Raj Chouhan,"said Akbar Fort museum superintendent Syeed Ajam Hussein. "Pushkar has the importance of multi-religious studies. The statues are in very good condition,"he said, adding that the statues bear pure art of Jain sculptures and therefore have significance for the scholars and archaeologists.

About 8 years ago, a metallic statue pertaining to Jain religion was also found in the area which dated back to more than two thousand years. "The period is important because that was the time when the region was ruled by Hindu kings, and Ghajnis invaded the land,"added Ajam.

"Pushkar is an ancient city and clues are there that Vikramaditya of 6th century had studied in Pushkar. The land has more treasure dug under it,"said a Pushkar-based archaeologist Rajendra Yagnik. "More than 4 times, the university at Pushkar was ruined by the invaders. This university was unique with Samkhya, Yoga and Jain philosophies being taught there,"he said, adding, "A group of Italian archaeologists also visited the place and gathered information of scriptures found here."