Absent Lord: The Mahavir Temple

The other major attraction at Osiya is the eighth-century temple of Lord Mahavir. It is, in fact, only a short distance from Saciya Mata. One of the pujaris of Saciya Mata's temple who showed me around the Mahavir temple kept referring to it simply as the "Jain temple." His implication seemed to be that Saciya Mata is a lineage goddess, whereas Lord Mahavir represents something that has actually to do with Jainism. However, the two temples are deeply interconnected, as we see from the following stories of the creation of Lord Mahavir's temple (drawn from ibid.: 72-74) which link this event to Saciya Mata and the creation of the Osval caste.

One version holds that the temple was created by the minister Uhar.^[1] The image of Mahavir was made by Camunda Devi from a mixture of sand and milk, and had to be dug up from the ground. Because it was excavated prematurely (that is, before the goddess said it should have been), it had two flaws (granthi, "knots") on its chest. As we shall see later, these flaws figure importantly in other stories, and this story resembles closely the story told by the purjaris of the temple today.

According to another version - which Bhutoriya characterizes as "popular belief" - a wealthy person named Ahar was at that time trying to construct a Mahadev (Siva) temple. However, he had a big problem. As much of the temple as he built up during the day would be mysteriously torn down at night. In despair he went to Acarya Ratnaprabhsuri, who suggested that he build a temple for Lord Mahavir instead. From this point on there was no obstacle, and the temple was built. Then arose the question of the image. For some time a cow had been letting its milk fall spontaneously on the ground at a place nearby, and all were amazed by this phenomenon.^[2] Upon digging at this spot, the people found an image of a Tirthankar. According to Ratnaprabhsuri, it was made of sand and milk. There were two knobs (flaws) on its chest, and the monk said that this was caused by the digging. Ratnaprabhsuri himself performed the installation ceremony of the image (while bilocationally doing the installation ceremony of another image elsewhere). The image later got the reputation of being filled with magical power.

Now, it is also said that 303 years after the establishment of this temple there was an important incident concerning the knots or flaws on the image's chest (this from ibid.: 76). It seems that some zealous laymen, thinking the two knots to be unsightly, tried to remove them. The goddess was enraged by this and created a great disturbance (updrav) that affected the whole city. Here we recognize Saciya Mata acting in the standard role of a guardian deity to Lord Mahavir's image. In a version of this story told to me by the Saciya Mata pujaris (below), milk and blood flowed from the image.

Disturbed by these frightening events, the community invited an acarya named Kakksuri, who was the thirteenth successor to the leadership of the Upkes Gacch, to come and quell the disturbance. He had a snatrapuja performed for the image, and in this puja the eighteen clans of the Osval caste (often referred to as the "mahajanvams" in these accounts) were the puja principals. Nine clans poured the liquids from one direction, nine clans from the other. The disturbance stopped, but because of the goddess's curse the Osvals had to leave the city. This was the great Diaspora of the Osvals. After they fled Osiya, theorizes Bhutoriya, the name "Upkesiya" must have come into currency for these people, which in time became Osvamsiya. In any case, in time the city became deserted, and so it nearly is today.^[3]