Jain temples at Kundalpur

Kundalpur (Madhya Pradesh), Jan. 20: Acting swiftly after long months of planning, thousands of Jains gathered at a holy site on Tuesday afternoon, formed a human barricade to hold off police, and shifted a 1,400-year-old statue of a prophet to a new place.

The state’s BJP government chose to look the other way but a livid Archaeological Survey of India has moved Madhya Pradesh High Court and obtained an order for status quo.

The sixth-century statue of Lord Adinath, also known as Bade Baba, stood on the Kundalpur hillock, the site of 64 ancient temples in Damoh district, 200 km northwest of Bhopal. It has been moved a few metres away to a new, 150,000-square-foot temple built over the past five years.

A senior police officer said: “We could not act as we did not have the crucial political clearance.”

According to Jain beliefs, Lord Rishabha was the first Tirthankar (Jain prophet) of the present age (Avasarpini) ? hence the name Adinath, the first lord. He was an Arhat, a “liberated soul”.

ASI superintendent K.K. Mohammad said the statue is of archaeological importance and cannot be relocated without its permission. He added that never before had an idol under the agency’s protection been shifted illegally.

“The court of judge K.K. Lahoti on Wednesday accepted our petition, which said the statue had been relocated illegally and without permission from the ASI,” Mohammad said. “We also said the state government machinery had failed to prevent the relocation.”

But Jain leaders argued the idol had to be moved because it had tilted by a centimetre following an earthquake a few years ago. Acharya Vidya Sagar, a Jain saint, said several cracks had appeared in the statue.

Sources close to the Jain leaders said the mission to shift the idol had been named “Operation Moksha” and a lot of planning went into it.

ASI officials said the construction of the temple where the statue has now been placed, too, was illegal.

Asked why the agency had failed to act while it was being built, Mohammad pulled out a sheaf of papers ? copies of letters and reminders sent to the state government since 1997, around the time the plans for the temple were being drawn up.

This means even the Congress regime headed by Digvijay Singh had chosen to ignore the ASI’s appeals for state intervention. The last communication, dated January 12, 2006, had requested chief secretary Vijay Singh to act urgently.

The high court has ordered that the statue should remain wherever it was at 4.30 pm on Tuesday.