Ahmedabad (Gujarat), November 29, 2013: One of the living heritages of Jain architecture in Gujarat, the Hutheesing Jain Derasar, built in 1848 AD, is an architectural marvel in marble.
To add value to its immensely illustrious past and a novel attempt to raise awareness levels about Jainism, the temple will now open its doors to technology that will help the monument preserve and disseminate its thinking to the newer generations.
With this aim, the derasar plans to set up an audio-visual centre to showcase documentaries on the lives of Jain maharajas, beautiful sculptures of the Jain munis and major scenes from history.
It will also house a museum, an art gallery and a huge library on its premises. The two-storey building constructed on derasar’s premises, and to be named ‘Shashan Samrat Bhavan’ in honour of popular Jain maharaj Vijay Nemisuri Maharaj, is at present being given final touches for its launch on December 8.
Explaining about the building plan, Acharya Vijayshil Chandrasuri Maharaj said: “The ground floor will have paintings and live-sized sculptures of disciples of Mahavir Swami and some of the important scenes in their lives. Many important incidents that took place 2,500 years ago as well as presentations through paintings and sketches on how they became Jain monks will be displayed.” Interestingly, artists from West Bengal are working on the sculptures at the workshop on the derasar premises.
The Maharaj further said that the first floor will have a pictorial art gallery of Vijay Nemisuri Maharaj and the second floor will have a huge repository with a provision of storing one lakh books. “Fifty years back, Vijay Nemisuri Maharaj started a library with 50,000 books in the Relief Road; but it lies defunct today. The books from there will be shifted to the derasar and the new library will be contain revolving cupboards to accommodate more books,” he said.
There are also plans to have audio tour of the museum and the art gallery for the visitors for better understanding on Jainism. The building, which is a brainchild of Vijay Suryodaysuri maharaj, will have an audio visual centre, where documentary movie on life of Vijay Nemisuri Maharaj will be screened. – News & Image Courtesy: DNA India