Last year, during my New Delhi / India trip between Sept' 2011 to Dec' 2011, we had quite a number of get tog ether's, which will always remain a wonderful experience as days pass by.
Most importantly, at M S Sandhu's home when we had our first get together, Virender Sawhney and Ashok Syal brought from there treasure trove photos, of our great association at school between 1966 when we entered to finally passing out in 1971, what we call as our 1971 batch, with which we identify our mates from ISM.
I had then requested every one of them to send me those photos, but after my sending TEXT message to both (Virender Sawhney & Ashok Syal), resulted into a call from Virender Sawhney and next day when I opened my GMAIL account found Ashok Syal had send us precious photos of our times, when we rejoiced together and have made those memories recorded on photos pasted below.
Although Ashok Syal scanned them few photos together, but after learning the art of separating and saving in jpeg file etc, I have placed below for every one to enjoy and recall those moments we enjoyed at school. Its that nostalgia which brings us together.
The photos have been placed under following headings:
- December' 1966 - Parasnath Trip for seeing one of the best Jain Temples, believe me we had such an excitement, that a team of 10 to 15 classmates, joined for that trip.
- 1970 - Possibly during summer time, when we had shifted to New Hostel from Old Hostel, some of the snaps were taken in front of our room (my room was facing road) on the main road. Group photos, and Rickshaw photo reminds us how much we used to use rickshaw those days, the only mode of transport we could afford for going from school to Old Station market, Rajinder Nagar, for cinemas near by and at Jharia etc.
- Petroleum Engineering 1971 batch Group Photos.
- Geology Excursion
December' 1966- April' 1967:
I can recall the urge, which our Subash Jain, had it and also we were told they are great temples carved out of marble on the hill top of Parsanath. They had been therefor many centuries, and I did some search on web to find our history and its importance to Jain's community. Although I would not like to go into too much details, but how we went there, by train, bus, and then trekking up hill starting early morning hours of the day, till we finally reach our summit. Lot of non Jain's like me and my other classmates it was very much fun, being together for couple of days, which brought us very close to each other. The trip was great, we took candles, torches for our way up in the darkness till we saw daylight some where around 6 to 7 am.
It will good to give the back ground / history of these temples so nicely carved in marble. Difficult to believe, how men took all those stones to make this temples. Its history can be read below, especially for Subash Jain, to let him know that I had to read and edit some of my writing here from net.
It will good to give the back ground / history of these temples so nicely carved in marble. Difficult to believe, how men took all those stones to make this temples. Its history can be read below, especially for Subash Jain, to let him know that I had to read and edit some of my writing here from net.
History:
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| View of Hilly Terrain |
Parasnath Hill is
located in Girdih district in today’s Jharkhand, Bihar and is a major
pilgrimage destination and is the most sacred place for Jains in the
world. Parasnath Hill has a height of 1,350 meters (4,430 ft) and the
highest mountain in the state of Jharkhand. It was made accessible when
the road was constructed in the year 1838.
The oldest reference to the hills as a holy place is found in one of the twelve texts of Jain literature. The development of the hills was probably prompted by the popularity of Vulture Peak in Bihar, the holy mountain connected with the Buddha where his disciple Śāriputra and others are alleged to have attained enlightenment.
The hill is named after Parasnath, and the special sanctity of Parasnath for the Jain arises from the tradition and according to Jain belief, twenty of the twenty-four Tirthankaras (teachers of the Jains) attained Moksha (Nirvana) from this place. According to local tradition the number of Tirthankars who attained nirvana on the Parasnath hill is 20 and not 9. For each of them there is a shrine on the hill.
Some of the temples on the hill are believed to be more than 2,000 years old. Significantly the oldest of the Jain temple appears to date only from AD. 1775.
Baisakhi Celebrations:
Parasnath is the hill with plenty of temples scattered all around the hill tops, and each year devotees assemble during full moon in Baisakh (which falls on 13th April each year) and celebrate a religious hunt for three days after which great tribal celebrations are held.
Wild Life Sanctuary:
Parasnath has been declared by Government of Bihar a ‘wild life sanctuary’ and local District administration and Forest officials are trying to persuade / teach the local tribe to give up their religious hunt.
The Trek:
To reach Parasnath Temples, one need to reach foot hill first, which is located about 20 km from Parasnath Railway station. The only mode of transport to the foothill is by Taxi, Mini Bus etc. and to reach temples which are scattered all around the hill, one has to resort to walk up hill and occupies all the grandeur of scattered Jain temples.
We left Dhanbad possibly by train and got down at Parsnath Railway Station, from where we took bus to reach the foothills of the temple. Near Madhuban the village has a famous temple believed to be more than 2000 years old. It is a place of considerable religious importance for the Jain. Two temples which are famous for Jain community are - Samos Haran and Bhomiyaji Asthan. There is a Jain Museum at Madhuban which houses a number of Jain scriptures, Idols and manuscript. One can also view the clear sight of Parasnath Temple using the telescope installed at the balcony of the museum.
From the foot hills - we planned to take the walking up hill; a distance of approximately of 27 Kms, (i.e. the trek to Śikharjī and back). We also started early in the morning around 2 to 3 am, with candles lights, torches etc. All the way up hill, we were enchanting songs, seeing lot of devotees walking up hill, and in Jainism we were surprised we found naked sadhus in bitter cold walking up without any fear and cold biting them.
Although people who could not walk all the way have an option to use the services of "doli wallah", a term used to describe villagers who use a one-seater 'doli' to ferry people up and down the hills. We also came across 'dolis' carried by 4 people as well as 2 people, depending on the weight of the person to be ferried up. The charges quoted by 'doli wallahs' vary seasonally but are reasonable due to the fact; people take this holy trip with great pride as what was told to us when we asked out of curiosity. Trekkers as well as "doli wallahs" usually keep a torch with them to assist the steep climb through the jungles early in the morning, with no other safety gadget (we never had mobile phones those days) as trek all around is safe with so many people going up or returning after darshan / prayer.
There were many stalls all along the way serving tea, coffee, water and all kinds of snacks and even fruits, although we carried lot of eatables with water bottles in our air bags. We had to remain vegetarian all through our trek, till we returned Dhanbad.
Most of the route was paved with concrete slabs, although dirt road was at many places all the way up with slope at places becoming steep.
I do not recall which hill we went first, as there are so many hills until we reached Parsanth Hill itself. Some of the photos will speak our travel. We all used to cut jokes, with our colleagues during our journey and back as one of our head cooks at Punjab Mess also had same name, which used to be teasing factor for our Jain friends, as two of our classmates Subash and Sunil Jain had changed from vegetarian diet to non-vegetarian. I do not know what category of food they eat today.
Normally, trekkers / worshippers / and group tours usually first reach Gautam Swamy hill, followed by Chandra Prabhu hill, then on their way back visit Jal Mandir and then finally Parasnath Hill via the Gautam Swamy hill. There is also a way down from Parasnath Hill itself that after about 3kms merges with the road taken while climbing up.
Significance to Jainism:
Shri Sammed Shikharji attracts pilgrims from across India.The number of Tirthankars who attained nirvana at Shri Sammet Shikharji is 20. For each of them there is a shrine on the hill.
The hill is also known as Parasnath, a name derived from Parshva, the 23rd Tirthankara who attained Nirvana there. His present temple is not very old, although the idol in the main temple is ancient. The Sanskrit inscriptions at the foot of the images indicate that they were put in the temple in 1678 A.D.
Archaeologists believe some of the existing temple edifices on Parasnath Hill date from 1765 A.D. although the place is of greater antiquity. It is certain that the present edifices replace older edifices, which were demolished. History says -Jain temples were often brought down and re-built, reasons till today still stand as a mystery, possibly no artifacts have been found to prove otherwise.
Each pilgrimage site represents centuries of devotion, which found expression in temple-building, and to this day are at the center of pilgrimages and festivals at frequent intervals. Although many of the temples may seem complicated in appearance, each is designed on the principles common to the religious architecture of the late medieval period, the elaborations being due to such factors as the addition of supplementary shrines, second stories, and adding pillared cloisters around all the larger examples. One variation unique to Jain temples is the frequent production of a class of temple known as charmukh, or four-faced.
Myth or Strong Believe:
There is a Temple of Bhomiyaji at the start of the Hills (Termed as Taleti) and it is said that once you bow your head at this temple and start the journey towards the top of the hill, there is no way you can be mislead in the journey. The moment you forget the way, there will be Dogs who will guide you the way and will soon disappear fast once you are back on track.
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| With priest on extreme right |
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| Tired but took snap at the foot of the Temple |
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| Group Photo in Jungles Up Hill |
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| Parasnath Temple |
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| Front Row - Talwar, Kapoor & Sandhu & fellow mates |
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| Parasnath Temple |
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| Smiling Faces of our Group, tired but fresh for photo shoot |
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| Hill View |
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| Hill View |
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| Parasnath Temple |
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| Panormic View of Hill |
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| Front Row - Sawhney, P K Johri, Second Row - Subash Jain, Sandhu & P K Sharma, Standing ?????, K N Ojha, D S Mathur, ???? |
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| Parasanath Temple |
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| View of Parasnath Hill |
Return to Dhanbad:
We returned to Dhanbad after two or three days, fully exhausted, with sore feet and blisters, which took some time to heal, and we were back on our study course, with off course memories which we are sharing now after 45 years.
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| Panoramic View of Parasnath Hill |
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| Another View of Parasnath Hill |
Time passed by, until last year when we had few get tog ethers with our classmates, when I happen to see few photographs that I thought of penning it down our memories and to enlighten all our mates of this holy place. Some of the names of our mates we who traveled with us, are: M S Sandhu, Virender Sawhney, Subash Jain & Sunil Jain, A K Ahluwalia, Ashwani Sarin, P K Johri and few more and myself. Can others recognize themselves.
1970 - Possibly during summer time
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| Flower Blossom at Main Building Oval |
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| Culvert in between Old and New Hostel - Mhajhan, Syal, Jain, Sawhney & Johri |
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| L to R - V Sawhney, Johri, Syal, Mhajhan & Subash Jain |
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| L to R - Talwar, Mahajhan, Johri, Syal & Sawhney |
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| In front of New Hostel - Syal, Jain, Talwar, Johri and Sawhney |
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| Talwar, Johri, Mahajhan with rose, S Jain & Ashok Syal |
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| P K Johri, S Jain, A K Syal, Mhajhan and Arun Talwar |
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| Sawhney, Mahajhan, Syal,Talwar & Subash Jain |
Great photo memories of school days, wont you all rejoice, by calling your mates.
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Petroleum Engineering 1971 batch Group Photos:
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| L to R - Ravi Khanna, ???, Johri, Mahajhan & Syal |
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| L to R -Vijay Poplai, Johri, Khanna, and Ashok Syal |
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| Group Photo of Pet Engg Batch 1971 |
Geology Excursion:
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| Caption Names |
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| Caption Names |
Have fun with these great memories, sent by Ashok Syal, can we not dig our photo treasures, I believe every one will have something to share. Only thing is we are too lazy to did and share with our friends. Anyway I pen down here, lets be all happy when we will be coming close to senior citizens from western world where they recognize us at 65 Yrs, In India its +60Yrs, am I right? My prayers are with every one for a gala good time, with grand children and keep yourself fit, hale and hearty for awaiting your Golden Jubilee at ISM followed by 75th birthday.
A Talwar,
('71 Mining)
Auckland, New Zealand
A Talwar,
('71 Mining)
Auckland, New Zealand
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