Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

1. This case is the result of further disputes between the two sects of Jain as to their rights of worship on Parasnath hill. As so much turns on the beliefs now entertained by the whole Jain community with reference to the sacred character of this hill, their Lordships will begin by citing the opening paragraphs of the judgment delivered by Lord Phillimore a few years ago in Maharaj Bahadur Singh v. Seth Hukum Chand (1925) 24 A.L.J. 100, p.c. in which this subject is most felicitously dealt with (p. 100) :-

The Jains recognise 24 highly saintly personages-men who have attained salvation or Nirvana, who are called Tirthankars (finders of the ford, across the river of death). These four and twenty are counted in many respects as higher than the gods or some of the gods in the Hindu Pantheon.

Twenty of them are believed to have attained Nirvana in the present cycle of the world's history upon the Hill Parasnath in the district of Hazaribagh in Bengal, with the result that the hill is held in reverence by Jains. The hill itself has some remarkable natural features, and rises into several peaks. Twenty spots apparently marked out by natural features, are believed to be places from which the 20 Tirthankars quitted earth ; and at each of these spots, a footprint of the Saint is worshipped. There is a small enclosure covered with a cupola, which at the present moment is made of white marble. These spots have been set apart from remote antiquity. The four remaining Tirthankars quitted earth in other parts of India. In respect of them conventional spots have been since the year 1868 set apart and treated in a similar way.

7. As regards the question of the hill being debutter property, as pointed out in the High Court judgments, it cannot be said that this issue was very clearly raised in the pleadings, but it has been dealt with by both the lower courts on all available evidence, and, in their Lordships' opinion, it is desirable that it should now be finally decided, so as not to give occasion for further litigation between the two sects. Their Lordships will, therefore, proceed to consider it.

8. The Jain shrines on Parasnath hill are undoubtedly of great antiquity, but very little is known of their past history or as to the time when the now prevailing views as to the sanctity of the whole hill first obtained acceptance. The early work referred to in the argument for the appellants merely extols the superior efficiency of the abishekam or ablution ceremony when performed at the shrines as compared with the same ceremony when performed in ordinary temples. From the 16th to the 18th century, the Jagat Seths, a wealthy and powerful family of bankers at Murshidabad, who belonged to the Swetambari sect, appear to have maintained the shrines, but on the cession to the East India Company in 1765 they removed to Calcutta.

18. On this basis, the learned Judges rightly proceeded to consider whether the acts complained of interfered with the Digambaris' rights of ownership on the hill. Now eating and drinking, spitting and the offices of nature, and many other things, which are unseemly and irreverent acts in a place of worship, are naturally and properly prohibited in the ancient "Ashatana of Jin temples"; but, as observed by Ross J., \ these rules can only be applied by analogy to a vast expanse like Parasnath hill, and must be subject to reasonable modifications in practice, and this is what is shown by the evidence to have happened.