Image Courtesy: deccanherald.com
First it was the pilgrimage tour called the Ramayana circuit. Then followed the Mahabharata circuit, then the Krishna circuit, the Shaktipeeth circuit, Jyotirlinga circuit and finally,, the Buddhist circuit. Now it’s Jainism’s turn: the Maharashtra government has come out with yet another circuit connecting the important Jain sites to promote through tourism, reports The Deccan Herald.
The ‘Holy Jain Tirth Darshan Circuit’ has, on January 20, been formally launched by Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari in the presence of state Tourism Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha. Lodha, a builder, is also minister for Women and Child Welfare who announced the establishment of the controversial Committee to monitor Inter-Commumity violence on December 13, 2022.
In this latest venture, the state’s tourism department has involved multiple sites, some of them dating back to several centuries.
These include Shree Godiji Parshwanath Tirth (Mumbai), Manasmandiram Trust-Shahpur Jain Tirth (Thane), Shree Amijhara Shankheshwar Parshvabhudaya Tirth (Nashik), Shree Mangi Tungiji Digambar Jain Siddha Kshetra Devsthan (Nasik), Shree Balsana Shwetamber Jain Tirth (Dhule), Antariksh Parshwanath Bhagwan-Shirpur (Dhule), Shree Swapnadev Kesariya Parshwanath Temple- Bhadrawati (Chandrapur), Shri Jagavallabh Parshvanath Jain Swetamber Mandir (Kolhapur), Kumbhoj Bahubali Jain Temple (Kolhapur) and Padma Mani Jain Tirth (Pune).
While pollution levels in Maharashtra’s capital soar,(the PmT levels have hit and crossed 300 post December 2022 and continue to hover at unsustainable and dangerous levels, uncontrolled construction works pushed by the politician -builder nexus carry on playing with Mumbaikar’s lives just as an aggressive politics of politico- religiosity drowns out reason.
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