[Reader-list] Kashmir’s only Jain temple burnt down

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

Kashmir’s only Jain temple burnt down Idols Safe As Priest, Sniffing
Trouble, Hid Them In Hotel Hemali Chhapia & Mansi Choksi | TNN
The Times of India

Mumbai: Two years ago, a family from Mumbai built a temple in the lap of
snow-capped mountains miles away in Srinagar. The derasar (temple), carved
out of teak, decked with marigolds and installed with three idols of Jain
tirthankars, was set up for the thousands of Jains who streamed into the
volatile region every holiday season.

    But last Saturday, the only Jain temple in the Kashmir Valley was burnt
down by a mob. “It is now ground zero. There is nothing left,’’ says Jyotin
Doshi, chairman of Gem, a travel agency in Mumbai, whose family built the
temple.

    A shaken-up Doshi recalls speaking to the priest, the lone caretaker of
the temple, on the night the violence erupted. “There was curfew in the
Valley but he noticed people gathering outside the temple,’’ he says. The
priest, who is disturbed and has now returned to his village near
Lucknow, quickly
gathered the three idols, which were sculpted out of panchdhatu (an alloy of
gold, silver, copper, iron and zinc), and hid them in a hotel. “Three hours
later, the mob struck and destroyed what we had built,’’ says Doshi.

    Two members of Doshi’s team from Mumbai, Apurva Bhansali and Jiten
Dharod, flew to Srinagar the next day when the curfew was lifted. They
packed the idols in cardboard boxes and flew to Sabarmati in Gujarat.
“Before the two had reached, the news had spread in Sabarmati. When the
idols were installed in Chintamani Parshwanath derasar there, there were
more than 14,000 people who came for darshan,’’ he says.

    Doshi says his family set up the temple to realize his 68-year-old
mother’s dream. “There are many Jain travellers who can’t start their day
without offering prayers. She believed that the Valley needed a Jain temple
for them,’’ he says.

    After news spread, the Doshi family has been flooded with support from
the community. “We don’t want anything out of this. Such an issue is easily
made into a political controversy. We only want closure through nonviolence.
Our idols are safe and that’s what matters,’’ he says.
The Doshis, a family from Mumbai, had set up the derasar in Srinagar two
years ago to realize the wishes of their mother, who wanted to build a
temple for Jains. After the shrine was destroyed in violence, they secretly
took the idols to Gujarat