The Creator of Ashtapad Tirth & Behind the Granth: Dr. Rajnikant Shah
Born in the year 1935, in India to parents Pasi Bai and Revchand Bhai Shah. Gold medalist from Subodh High School, Jaipur and moved to Mumbai to study medicine at Grant Medical College followed by M.D. (Raj), M.R.C.P. (Lon), D.T.M. and H. (Eng.). Trained in New York and London and helped in establishing Santokba Durlabhji Memorial Hospital (SDMH) at Jaipur.
Destiny brought him to New York in the gemstone business in 1976, where he became a major supplier of rough gemstones to Jaipur, also known as Emerald King in Brazil. He helped establish the Indian Diamond and Color stone Association in New York City and was actively involved in business for 30 years.
For the past 10 years he has been involved with the construction of the temple building for Jain Center of America Inc. NY. He created a model of Shri Ashtapad Tirth from crystal & gemstones and collected Ashtapad related literature from scriptures and presented them in XX volumes. Selected articles summarizing this work are being published in two parts.
Dr. Shah was instrumental in organizing initial research trip to Kailash Mansarovar region and was the person behind exhibits & seminars that were held in many cities.
A positive thinker, Dr. R. Shah has a literary background; has Sahitya Ratna degree in Hindi, and has great interest in collecting Sher and Shairi. His hobby is collecting stamps & is currently planning for an online web museum on stamps of gems and jewelry.
A true philanthropist donated an outdoor building at SDMH, a building for MBA for Subodh College, a Bhojanshala at Jaipur and many more.
Knowledge about gemstones helped him to think of and create this Tirth. He is a multifaceted gem of a person.
During exhibits, many visitors have requested to make an Ashtapad Tirth in India. His next goal is to help build a much larger Tirth in India.
Shri Ashtapad Maha Tirth Ratna Mandir
Ashtapad Maha Tirth is one of the five major Tirths in the Jain Religion and is thought to be lost. It is supposed to be situated in the tranquil heights of snow clad Himalayas. JCA is actively involved in trying to re-discover the lost Tirth.
As per Jain scriptures, the first Tirthankar Bhagwan Rushabhdev had attained nirvana on the Ashtapad Mountain. His son Chakravarti King Bharat had built a palace with crystal & installed 24 Tirthankar idols carved from gemstones as a memorial to commemorate the nirvana of Bhagwan Rushabhdev. The name "Ashtapad" is derived from the fact that there are eight (Ashta) steps (Pad) leading to the palace.
There are many stories related to Ashtapad such as Nag Kumar and Sagar's sons, Ravan and Mandodari Bhakti, Tapas Kheer Parna etc. Shri Gautam Swami climbed the Ashtapad with the help of sun rays 2,600 years ago.
Many articles were collected on Ashtapad from scriptures and compiled in XX volumes. After selection ten percent of the articles are being presented in two parts summarizing this work.
The Ashtapad Model and three Chovisi idols were exhibited in many cities. These activities were organized to raise awareness and allow people to pay their respect to three Chovisi and Ashtapad Tirth.
Installation of the Ashtapad Mountain sculpted from crystal was done on June 21st, 2009 and Pratishtha ceremony (Adhar Abhishek & installation of 24 idols carved from gemstones) was performed from June 10th to 21st, 2010 at JCA, New York.
Three field trips were conducted to Kailash Mansarovar region to perform preliminary research work which included many scholars and scientists. Satellite studies with high resolution imaging have been used in identifying location of probable sites for buried structures. However further research is needed.
Shri Rushabhdev era was the dawning of world civilization & once located, it will tell us about early growth of human civilization, religion and culture.
Jai Jinendra
