125-515: Swaminarayan ( IAST : Svāmīnārāyaṇa ; 3 April 1781 – 1 June 1830), also known as Sahajanand Swami , was a yogi and ascetic believed by followers to be a manifestation of Krishna or the highest manifestation of Purushottama , around whom the Swaminarayan Sampradaya developed. In 1800, he was initiated into the Uddhava sampradaya by his guru, Swami Ramanand , and was given
250-472: A Franciscan friar from Pordenone in modern Italy , visited India in 1316–1318, some 20 years after Marco Polo had dictated the account of his travels while in a Genoese prison. In his own account of 1321, Odoric reported how the people put the deities on chariots, and the King, Queen and all the people drew them from the "church" with song and music. Celebrated on Ashadha Trayodashi , Niladri Bije
375-568: A macron ). Vocalic (syllabic) consonants, retroflexes and ṣ ( / ʂ ~ ɕ ~ʃ/ ) have an underdot . One letter has an overdot: ṅ ( /ŋ/ ). One has an acute accent : ś ( /ʃ/ ). One letter has a line below: ḻ ( / ɭ / ) (Vedic). Unlike ASCII -only romanisations such as ITRANS or Harvard-Kyoto , the diacritics used for IAST allow capitalisation of proper names. The capital variants of letters never occurring word-initially ( Ṇ Ṅ Ñ Ṝ Ḹ ) are useful only when writing in all-caps and in Pāṇini contexts for which
500-459: A book of social laws that his followers should follow. A commentary on the practice and understanding of dharma , it is a small booklet containing 212 Sanskrit verses, outlining the basic tenets that Swaminarayan believed his followers should uphold in order to live a well-disciplined and moral life. The oldest copy of this text is preserved at the Bodleian Library of Oxford University and it
625-529: A book on his life and pastimes. To enable Shatanand Swami to write from His childhood, Swaminarayan had blessed Shatanand Swami with Sanjay Drishti - special power to see the entire past right from His childhood. Once written by Shatanand Swami, this book was verified and authenticated by Swaminarayan. He was much pleased to read the book. Swaminarayan then asked his disciples to do Katha of Satsangi Jeevan. Decades after his death, several divisions occurred with different understandings of succession. This included
750-485: A collection of these things, and there is nothing to be attractive. Members of the faith are defensive of the fact that some practices seem to restrict women and make gender equality in leadership impossible. They are only permitted to enter special sections of the temple reserved for women or have to go to separate women's temples. As with practices of niddah in Orthodox Judaism, concepts of pollution associated with
875-458: A correct understanding of Vedanta , Samkhya , Yoga , and Pancaratra . To find such an ashram, Nilkanth Varni asked the following five questions on the basic Vaishnava Vedanta categories: While on his journey, Nilkanth Varni mastered Astanga yoga (eightfold yoga) in a span of nine months under the guidance of an aged yogic master named Gopal Yogi. In Nepal, it is said that he met King Rana Bahadur Shah and cured him of his stomach illness. As
1000-469: A direct line of blood descent from his family. The administrative division of his followers into two territorial dioceses is set forth in minute detail in a document written by Swaminarayan called Desh Vibhag Lekh . Swaminarayan stated to all the devotees and saints to obey both the Acharyas and Gopalanand Swami who was considered as the main pillar and chief ascetic for the sampradaya. The current acharya of
1125-433: A font, etc. It can be enabled in the input menu in the menu bar under System Preferences → International → Input Menu (or System Preferences → Language and Text → Input Sources) or can be viewed under Edit → Emoji & Symbols in many programs. Equivalent tools – such as gucharmap ( GNOME ) or kcharselect ( KDE ) – exist on most Linux desktop environments. Users of SCIM on Linux based platforms can also have
1250-426: A four-handed Vishnu , as a manifestation of Jagannath. Devotees get the first glimpse of the deities on the day before Ratha Yatra , which is called Navayouvana . It is said that the deities fall in fever after taking a huge bath, and they are treated by the special servants, named Daitapatis, for 15 days. During this period, cooked food is not offered to the deities. The Jagannath triad are usually worshipped in
1375-584: A legal document titled the Lekh , Swaminarayan created two dioceses, the Laxmi Narayan Dev Gadi (Vadtal Gadi) and Nar Narayan Dev Gadi (Ahmedabad Gadi) , with a hereditary leadership of acharyas and their wives from his own extended family, who were authorized to install statues of deities in temples and to initiate ascetics. Swaminarayan was born on 3 April 1781 ( Chaitra Sud 9, Samvat 1837) in Chhapaiya ,
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#17328690717211500-652: A line of acharyas or preceptors, as his successors. He established two gadis (seats of leadership). One seat was established at Ahmedabad ( Nar Narayan Dev Gadi ) and the other one at Vadtal ( Laxmi Narayan Dev Gadi ) on 21 November 1825. Swaminarayan appointed an acharya to each of these gadis to pass on his message to others and to preserve his fellowship, the Swaminarayan Sampradaya. These acharyas came from his immediate family after sending representatives to search them out in Uttar Pradesh . He formally adopted
1625-476: A meeting with Reginald Heber , Lord Bishop of Calcutta and a leader of Christians in India at the time. Bishop Heber mentions in his account of the meeting that about two hundred disciples of Swaminarayan accompanied him as his bodyguards mounted on horses and carrying Matchlocks and swords. Bishop Heber himself had about a hundred horse guards accompanying him (fifty horses and fifty muskets) and mentioned that it
1750-457: A pious life. Using Hindu texts and rituals to form the base of his organisation, Swaminarayan founded what in later centuries would become a global organisation with strong Gujarati roots. He was particularly strict on the separation of sexes in temples. Swaminarayan was against the consumption of meat, alcohol or drugs, adultery, suicide, animal sacrifices, criminal activities and the appeasement of ghosts and tantric rituals. Alcohol consumption
1875-708: A result, the king freed all the ascetics he had imprisoned. Nilkanth Varni visited the Jagannath Temple in Puri as well as temples in Badrinath , Rameswaram , Nashik , Dwarka , and Pandharpur . In 1799, after a seven-year journey, Nilkanth's travels as a yogi eventually concluded in Loj, a village in the Junagadh district of Gujarat. In Loj, Nilkanth Varni met Muktanand Swami , a senior disciple of Ramanand Swami . Muktanand Swami, who
2000-506: A son each from his two brothers and appointed them to the office of acharya. Ayodhyaprasad , the son of Swaminarayan's elder brother Rampratap, and Raghuvira , the son of his younger brother Ichcharam, were appointed acharyas of the Ahmedabad Gadi and the Vadtal ( Kheda district ) Gadi respectively. Swaminarayan decreed that the office should be hereditary so that acharyas would maintain
2125-622: A subject of longstanding debate. The temple is open everyday from 5:00 am to 10:30 pm. Starting from Jagannath himself, history has it that he was a tribal deity, adorned by the Bhils and Sabar people , as a symbol of Narayana . Another legend claims him to be Nilamadhava , an image of Narayana made of blue stone and worshipped by the tribals. He was brought to Nilagiri , the blue mountain, or Nilachala, and installed there as Jagannath, in company with Balabhadra and Subhadra . The images made of wood are also claimed to have their distant linkage with
2250-574: A village near Ayodhya , then under the Nawab of Oudh , in present-day Indian state of Uttar Pradesh . Born into the Brahmin or priestly caste of Sarvariya, Swaminarayan was named Ghanshyam Pande by his parents, Hariprasad Pande (father, also known as Dharmadev) and Premvati Pande (mother, also known as Bhaktimata and Murtidevi). The birth of Swaminarayan coincided with the Hindu festival of Rama Navami , celebrating
2375-643: Is Purushottampriyadasji Maharaj. According to the biographer Raymond Williams, when Swaminarayan died, he had a following of 1.8 million people. In 2001, Swaminarayan centres existed on four continents, and the congregation was recorded to be five million, the majority in the homeland of Gujarat. The newspaper Indian Express estimated members of the Swaminarayan sect of Hinduism to number over 20 million (2 crore) worldwide in 2007. The manifestation belief and Swaminarayan's teachings were criticized by Hindu reformist leader Dayananda Saraswati (1824–1883). He questioned
2500-456: Is a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Jagannath , a form of Vishnu in Hinduism . It is located in Puri in the state of Odisha , situated on the eastern coast of India . As per temple records, King Indradyumna of Avanti built the main temple of Jagannath at Puri. The present temple was rebuilt from the tenth century onwards, on the site of the pre-existing temples in the compound, but not
2625-521: Is a disc with eight Navagunjaras carved on the outer circumference, with all facing towards the flagpost above. It is made up of Ashtadhatu and is 3.5 metres (11 ft) high, with a circumference of about 11 metres (36 ft). The Singhadwara , which in Sanskrit means "The Lion Gate", is one of the four gates to the temple, and forms the main entrance. The Singhadwara is so named because of two huge statues of crouching lions existing on either side of
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#17328690717212750-415: Is a title of honour sometimes applied to Hindu spiritual teachers who are regarded as having attained enlightenment. Paramahamsas were the highest order of sannyasi in the sect. Prominent paramahamsas included Muktanand Swami , Gopalanand Swami , Brahmanand Swami , Gunatitanand Swami , Premanand Swami , Nishkulanand Swami , and Nityanand Swami . Prior to his death, Swaminarayan decided to establish
2875-507: Is also remembered within the sect for undertaking reforms for women and the poor, and performing large-scale non-violent yajñas (fire sacrifices). During his lifetime, Swaminarayan institutionalized his charisma and beliefs in various ways. He built six mandirs to facilitate devotional worship of God by his followers, and encouraged the creation of a scriptural tradition, including the Shikshapatri , which he wrote in 1826. In 1826, through
3000-646: Is also used for major e-text repositories such as SARIT, Muktabodha, GRETIL, and sanskritdocuments.org. The IAST scheme represents more than a century of scholarly usage in books and journals on classical Indian studies. By contrast, the ISO 15919 standard for transliterating Indic scripts emerged in 2001 from the standards and library worlds. For the most part, ISO 15919 follows the IAST scheme, departing from it only in minor ways (e.g., ṃ/ṁ and ṛ/r̥)—see comparison below. The Indian National Library at Kolkata romanization , intended for
3125-782: Is by setting up an alternative keyboard layout . This allows one to hold a modifier key to type letters with diacritical marks. For example, alt + a = ā. How this is set up varies by operating system. Linux/Unix and BSD desktop environments allow one to set up custom keyboard layouts and switch them by clicking a flag icon in the menu bar. macOS One can use the pre-installed US International keyboard, or install Toshiya Unebe's Easy Unicode keyboard layout. Microsoft Windows Windows also allows one to change keyboard layouts and set up additional custom keyboard mappings for IAST. This Pali keyboard installer made by Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) supports IAST (works on Microsoft Windows up to at least version 10, can use Alt button on
3250-585: Is carved atop the door, for neglecting to take her with them on the Yatra. Only then, the goddess allows them permission to enter the temple. A magnificent sixteen-sided monolithic pillar, known as the Aruna Stambha , stands in front of the main gate. This pillar has an idol of Aruna , the charioteer of the sun god , Surya , on its top. One notable fact about the Aruna Stambha is that prior to its current location, it
3375-589: Is considered one of the most important of the Shaktipeeths . It is located near Rohini Kund in the temple complex. Until food offered to Jagannath is offered to goddess Vimala it is not considered Mahaprasad . The temple of Lakshmi , the consort of Jagannath, has an important role in rituals of the main temple. There are other shrines dedicated to Kanchi Ganesha , Shiva , Surya , Saraswati , Bhuvaneshwari , Narasimha , Rama , Hanuman . There are many mandapas , or pillared halls on raised platforms within
3500-453: Is considered sacrosanct. Among the existing temples in Odisha, the temple of Lord Jagannath is the highest. The temple tower was built on a raised platform of stone, rising to a height 65 metres (214 ft), above the inner sanctum where the deities reside, dominates the surrounding landscape. The pyramidal roofs of the surrounding temples and adjoining halls, or mandapas , rise in steps toward
3625-530: Is considered the principal theological text within the Swaminarayan Sampradaya . Compiled by four of his senior disciples, Swaminarayan edited and approved the scripture. As followers believe Swaminarayan to be Parabrahman, or God, the Vachanamrut is considered a direct revelation from God and thus the most precise interpretation of the Upanishads , Bhagavad Gita , and other important Hindu scriptures. This scripture
3750-674: Is found in the cultures of Hindu tribes. The three deities came to be claimed as the symbols of Samyak Darshan , Samyak Jnana and Samyak Charita , usually regarded as Ratnatraya , the triple gems of the Jain culture, assimilation of which leads to omniscience and Moksha ( salvation ). All of the renowned acharyas , including Madhvacharya , have been known to visit this kshetra . Adi Shankaracharya established his Govardhan Math here. Guru Nanak had visited this place with his disciples, Bala and Mardana. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of Gaudiya Vaishnavism stayed here for 24 years, declaring that
3875-494: Is observed for the first eight days. For the next eight days, the deities are taken outside the temple on a palanquin to the nearby Narayani temple situated in the Dola mandapa lane. After their worship, they are brought back to the temple. Nabakalabera is a ritual associated with Jagannath, which takes place every 8, 12 or 19 years, when one lunar month of Ashadha is followed by another lunar month of Ashadha. Meaning "New Body",
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4000-569: Is one of the holiest Vaishnava Hindu Char Dham sites, the four divine pilgrimage sites, the other being Rameswaram , Badrinath and Dwarka . Though the origins are not clearly known, the Advaita school of Hinduism propagated by Adi Shankaracharya , who created Hindu monastic institutions across India, attributes the origin of Char Dham to the seer. The four temples lie across the four cardinal points , or four corners of India, and their attendant temples are Badrinath Temple at Badrinath in
4125-501: Is one of the very few presented by Sahajanand Swami himself. Acharya Tejendraprasad of Ahmedabad has indicated in a letter that he is not aware of any copy from the hand of Sahajanand older than this text. Swaminarayan in various places of Shikshapatri describes Krishna as the greatest entity. The Vachanamrut (IAST: Vacanāmṛta, lit. "immortalising ambrosia in the form of words") is a sacred Hindu text consisting of 273 religious discourses delivered by Swaminarayan from 1819 to 1829 CE and
4250-530: Is read by followers regularly and discourses are conducted daily in Swaminarayan temples around the world. Satsangi Jeevan is the authorised biography of Swaminarayan. The book contains information on the life and teachings of Swaminarayan. It is written by Shatanand Swami and completed in Vikram Samvat 1885. Swaminarayan decided to make Gadhada his permanent residence on the insistence of Dada Khachar and his sisters. Swaminarayan instructed Shatanand Swami to write
4375-571: Is sacred to all Hindus, and especially in those of the Vaishnava traditions. Many great Vaishnava saints, such as Ramanujacharya , Madhvacharya , Nimbarkacharya , Vallabhacharya and Ramananda were closely associated with the temple. Ramanuja established the Emar Matha in the south-eastern corner of the temple, and Adi Shankaracharya established the Govardhan Math , which is the seat of one of
4500-525: Is surrounded by high fortified wall. This 6.1 metres (20 ft)-high wall is known as Meghanada Pacheri . Another wall known as kurma bedha surrounds the main temple. It contains at least 120 temples and shrines . With its sculptural richness and fluidity of the Kalinga architecture , it is one of the most magnificent temples of India. The temple has four distinct sectional structures, namely– Deula , Vimana or Garbhagriha ( sanctum sanctorum ), where
4625-723: Is the Ratha Yatra , or the chariot festival, in June or July. This spectacular festival includes a procession of three huge raths , or chariots, bearing the deities of Jagannath , Balabhadra and Subhadra through the Bada Danda , or the Grand Avenue of Puri , until their final destination to the Gundicha Temple . Others are Pana Sankranti , also known as Vishuva Sankranti and Mesha and Sankranti , in which special rituals are performed at
4750-457: Is the concluding day of Ratha Yatra. On this day, deities return to the Ratnabedi . Here, Jagannath offers Rasgulla to Goddess Lakshmi to enter into the temple. It is celebrated for 16 days from Ashwin month's Krishna dwitiya to Vijayadashami . As per tradition, Madhava , along with Durga , (known as Durgamadhaba ), is taken on a tour of the temple premises. The tour within the temple
4875-780: The Satsangi Jeevan , Swaminarayan's authorized biography, the Muktanand Kavya , the Nishkulanand Kavya and the Bhakta Chintamani . Swaminarayan wrote the Shikshapatri on 11 February 1826. While the original Sanskrit manuscript is not available, it was translated into Gujarati by Nityanand Swami under the direction of Swaminarayan and is revered in the sect. The Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency summarised it as
5000-464: The Government of Odisha , with a view to getting better administrative system, passed "The Puri Shri Jagannath Temple (Administration) Act, 1952". Dibyasingha Deba , the incumbent Gajapati king and King of Puri , is the current adhyasevak (chief servitor) of the temple. He took the role in 1970 at the age of 17, after the death of his father, Birakishore Deb, then King of Puri. The security at
5125-584: The Vaishnava sect known as the Radha-vallabha Sampradaya , he had a more puritanical approach, rather than the theological views of Krishna that are strongly capricious in character and imagery. While being a worshipper of Krishna, Swaminarayan rejected licentious elements in Krishnology in favor of worship in the mood of majesty, alike to earlier Vaishnava teachers, Ramanuja and Yamunacharya . According to Swaminarayan-tradition, Sahajanand Swami
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5250-503: The Vanvasis, or forest dwellers, as a system of worshipping wooden poles. To cap it all, the Daitapatis, who have a fair share of responsibilities to perform rituals of the temple, are claimed to be descendants of the hill tribes of Odisha , also believed to be a close relative of Jagannath. Hence, the beginning of the cultural history of Shrikshetra , known as the cultural capital of Odisha
5375-615: The four Shankaracharyas . It is also of particular significance to the followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism , whose founder, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu , was attracted to the deity, Jagannath, and lived in Puri for many years. The temple was rebuilt by the King of the Eastern Ganga dynasty , Anantavarman Chodaganga , in the 10th century CE, as described by the Kendupatna copper-plate inscription of his descendant, Narasimhadeva II and Rajendra Chola from
5500-424: The menstrual cycle lead to the exclusion of women from the temples and daily worship during the affected time. Swaminarayan also directed male devotees not to listen to religious discourses given by women. In the case of widows, Swaminarayan directed those who could not follow the path of chastity to remarry. For those who could, he lay down strict rules which included them being under the control of male members of
5625-471: The sanctum sanctorum of the temple at Puri , but during the month of Ashadha , or the monsoon month, usually falling in month of June or July, they are brought out onto the Bada Danda , or the divinity street, and travel (3 km) to the Gundicha Temple , in huge chariots, or raths , allowing the public to have the Darshana , or the holy view of the deities. This festival is known as Ratha Yatra , meaning
5750-648: The scriptures , including the Vedas , the Upanishads , the Puranas , the Ramayana , and the Mahabharata by the age of seven. After the death of his parents, Ghanshyam Pande left his home on 29 June 1792 (Ashadh Sud 10, Samvat 1849) at the age of 11. He took the name Nilkanth Varni while on his journey. Nilkanth Varni travelled across India and parts of Nepal in search of an ashram , or hermitage, that practiced what he considered
5875-612: The Ahmedabad Gadi is Koshalendraprasad Pande and Ajendraprasad Pande, of the Vadtal Gadi. In 1830, Swaminarayan gathered his followers and announced his departure. He later died on 1 June 1830 (Jeth sud 10, Samvat 1886), and it is believed by followers that, at the time of his death, Swaminarayan left Earth for Akshardham , his abode. He was cremated according to Hindu rites at Lakshmi Wadi in Gadhada . Swaminarayan insisted that education
6000-491: The Jagannath temple has been invaded and plundered eighteen times. The temple is believed to have been attacked by Kalapahad, a Muslim convert general, in the 16th century. Jagannath , Subhadra and Balabhadra are a trio of deities worshipped at the temple. The inner sanctum of the temple contains the deities of them carved from sacred neem logs, known as daru sitting on the bejewelled platform or ratnabedi , along with
6125-664: The Jagannath temple is that the original image of Jagannath at the end of the Dvapara Yuga , was manifested near a banyan tree, near the shore in the form of an Indranila Mani , or the Blue Jewel. It was so dazzling that it could grant an instant moksha , so the god Dharma , wanted to hide it in the earth, and was successful. In the Kali Yuga , Indradyumna wanted to find that mysterious image, and to do so, he performed harsh penance to obtain his goal. Vishnu then instructed him to go to
6250-652: The Temple, Nila Chakra and Meghanad Pacheri , similar to the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi . The corridor provides several facilities and amenities for giving pilgrims and visitors a hassle-free and memorable experience, and for strengthening safety and security of the temple and the devotees. Construction began on the corridor after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and
6375-672: The Tiger Gate and the Ashwadwara or the Horse Gate. There are about thirty smaller temples and shrines within the Temple complex where active worship is regularly conducted. There are some temples are considered significant and generally visited before the main temple of Jagannath:. the Ganesha temple near the kalpavata banyan tree , Vimala Temple , Nilamadhaba temple, Gopalaballava temple and Lakshmi temple. The Vimala Temple (Bimala Temple)
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#17328690717216500-746: The Transliteration Committee of the Geneva Oriental Congress , in September 1894. IAST makes it possible for the reader to read the Indic text unambiguously, exactly as if it were in the original Indic script. It is this faithfulness to the original scripts that accounts for its continuing popularity amongst scholars. Scholars commonly use IAST in publications that cite textual material in Sanskrit, Pāḷi and other classical Indian languages. IAST
6625-517: The aboriginals. The temple is one of the 108 Abhimana Kshethram of the Vaishnavite tradition. The temple is famous for its annual Ratha Yatra , or chariot festival, in which the three principal deities are pulled on huge and elaborately decorated raths , or temple cars . The worship is performed by the Bhil Sabar tribal priests, as well as priests of other communities in the temple. Unlike
6750-553: The acceptance of Swaminarayan as the Supreme Being and was disapproving towards the idea that visions of Swaminarayan could form a path to attaining perfection. Accused of deviating from the Vedas , his followers were criticised for the illegal collection of wealth and the "practice of frauds and tricks." In the views of Dayananda, published as early as 1875, it was a "historical fact" that Swaminarayan decorated himself as Narayana in order to gain followers. In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi in
6875-460: The age of 21, Sahajanand Swami was appointed successor to Ramanand Swami as the leader of the Uddhava Sampradaya by Ramanand Swami , prior to his death. The Uddhava Sampradaya henceforth came to be known as the Swaminarayan Sampradaya . According to sources he proclaimed the worship of one sole deity, Krishna or Narayana. Krishna was considered by him his own ishtadevata . In contrast with
7000-554: The area of Sanskrit studies make use of free OpenType fonts such as FreeSerif or Gentium , both of which have complete support for the full repertoire of conjoined diacritics in the IAST character set. Released under the GNU FreeFont or SIL Open Font License , respectively, such fonts may be freely shared and do not require the person reading or editing a document to purchase proprietary software to make use of its associated fonts. Jagannath Temple (Puri) The Jagannath Temple
7125-413: The birth of Rama . The ninth lunar day in the fortnight of the waxing moon in the month of Chaitra (March–April), is celebrated as both Rama Navami and Swaminarayan Jayanti by Swaminarayan followers. This celebration also marks the beginning of a ritual calendar for the followers. Swaminarayan had an elder brother, Rampratap Pande, and a younger brother, Ichcharam Pande. He is said to have mastered
7250-412: The company government. The company officers gave it a 101 gun salute when it was opened. It was in an 1825 meeting with Reginald Heber that Swaminarayan is said to have intimated that he was a manifestation of Krishna. In 1830, Swaminarayan had a meeting with Sir John Malcolm , Governor of Bombay (1827 to 1830). According to Malcolm, Swaminarayan had helped bring some stability to a lawless region. During
7375-536: The conduct in the Shikshapatri . Swaminarayan propagated general Hindu texts. He held the Bhagavata Purana in high authority. However, there are many texts that were written by Swaminarayan or his followers that are regarded as shastras or scriptures within the Swaminarayan sect. Notable scriptures throughout the sect include the Shikshapatri and the Vachanamrut . Other important works and scriptures include
7500-461: The construction of the first Jagannath temple was commissioned by King Indradyumna , a Malava king, mentioned in the Mahabharata and the Puranas . Indradyumna put up for Jagannath to build the tallest monument in the world. It was 1,000 cubits (457.2 metres) high. He invited Brahma , the cosmic creator , consecrate the temple and the images. The traditional story concerning the origins of
7625-526: The consumer edition since XP. This is limited to characters in the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP). Characters are searchable by Unicode character name, and the table can be limited to a particular code block. More advanced third-party tools of the same type are also available (a notable freeware example is BabelMap ). macOS provides a "character palette" with much the same functionality, along with searching by related characters, glyph tables in
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#17328690717217750-625: The convention is to typeset the IT sounds as capital letters. For the most part, IAST is a subset of ISO 15919 that merges the retroflex (underdotted) liquids with the vocalic ones ( ringed below ) and the short close-mid vowels with the long ones. The following seven exceptions are from the ISO standard accommodating an extended repertoire of symbols to allow transliteration of Devanāgarī and other Indic scripts , as used for languages other than Sanskrit. The most convenient method of inputting romanized Sanskrit
7875-424: The day and night, explaining the shlokas of the greatness of prasad, and ate the prasad the next morning after sunrise. The Sikh aarti , Gagan mein thaal , was recited by the first Sikh guru , Guru Nanak , in 1506 or 1508, during his journey, called udasi , to east India , at the revered Jagannath Temple, Puri. This aarti is only sung, not performed with any platter and/or lamps, etc. The temple
8000-585: The deities of Sudarshana Chakra , Madanmohan , Sridevi and Vishwadhatri . The deities are adorned with different clothing and jewels according to the season. Worship of these deities predates the building of the temple, and may have originated in an ancient tribal shrine. The oldest mention of the deity is in the Oddiyana Vajrayāna Tantric text Jñānasiddhi by Indrabhuti , which opens with an invocation of Jagannath. Sarala Das in his Sarala Mahabharata identified Jaganath with Buddha in Adi Parva and Madhya Parva. According to legends in Madala Panji ,
8125-405: The deities, on condition that he was to be left undisturbed until he finished the work. But just after two weeks, the queen of Indradyumna became very anxious. She took the carpenter to be dead as no sound came from the temple. Therefore, she requested the king to open the door. Thus, they went to see Vishnu at work, at which the latter abandoned his work, leaving the deities unfinished. The deity
8250-474: The empress of the temple herself, and that if the food prepared has any fault in it, a shadow dog appears near the temple kitchen, a sign of her displeasure. If the shadow dog is seen, the food is promptly buried and a new batch is cooked. All 56 varieties of food produced are vegetarian and prepared without onions and garlic. There are elaborate daily worship services. There are many festivals each year attended by millions of people. The most important festival
8375-404: The entrance. The gate faces eastward, opening on to the Bada Danda or the "Grand Road". The Baisi Pahacha , or the flight of twenty-two steps, leads into the temple complex. A deity of Jagannath known as Patita Pavana , which in Sanskrit means the "saviour of the downtrodden and the fallen", is painted on the right side of the entrance. In ancient times, when untouchables were not allowed inside
8500-428: The establishment of Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), the founder of which left the Vadtal Gadi in 1905, and Maninagar Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan , the founder of which left the Ahmedabad Gadi in the 1940s. The followers of BAPS hold Gunatitanand Swami as the spiritual successor to Swaminarayan, asserting that on several occasions Swaminarayan revealed to devotees that Gunatitanand Swami
8625-444: The extent to call sati nothing but suicide. Swaminarayan offered parents help with dowry expenses to discourage female infanticide, calling infanticide a sin. For calling a halt to these prevailing practices, Swaminarayan's "contemporaries naturally saw in him a pioneer of a reformed and purified Hinduism, and Swaminarayan Hinduism an 'ingrazi dharma' or British religion." Professor David Harman observed that Swaminarayan "criticized
8750-413: The family. This may seem regressive, however, it gave them "a respected and secure place in the social order" of the time. Swaminarayan restricted widows "to live always under the control of male members of their family and prohibited them from receiving instruction in any science from any man excepting their nearest relations." After assuming the leadership of the sampradaya, Swaminarayan worked to assist
8875-428: The festival, the Gajapati king wears the outfit of a sweeper, and sweeps all around the deities and their chariots in the Chhera Pahara ritual. The Gajapati king cleanses the road before the chariots with a gold-handled broom, and sprinkles sandalwood water and powder with utmost devotion. As per the custom, although the Gajapati King has been considered the most exalted person in the Kalinga kingdom, he still renders
9000-534: The foothills of the Himalayas, in the state of Uttarakhand . The journey across the four cardinal points of India is considered sacred by Hindus, who aspire to visit these temples at least once in their lifetime. Traditionally, the trip starts at the eastern end from Puri, proceeding in a clockwise direction, in a manner typically followed for circumambulation in Hindu temples. The temple complex covers an area of over 37,000 square metres (400,000 sq ft), and
9125-415: The form of an artisan and prepared images of Jagannath, Balabadra and Subhadra from the tree. When this log, radiant with light, was seen floating in the sea, Narada told the king to make three deities out of it and place them in a pavilion. Indradyumna got Vishwakarma, the architect of gods, to build a magnificent temple to house the deities, and Vishnu himself appeared in the guise of a carpenter to make
9250-412: The journey ( yatra ) of the chariots ( raths ). The Rathas are huge wheeled wooden structures, which are built anew every year and are pulled by the devotees with ropes. The chariot for Jagannath is approximately 14 metres (45 ft) high and 11 metres (35 ft) wide, and takes about 2 months to construct. The artists and painters of Puri decorate the cars and paint flower petals and other designs on
9375-491: The letter to his nephew, expressed that Swaminarayan's values didn't align perfectly with his interpretation of Vaishnavism and the love taught by Swaminarayana was all about sentimentalism. According to Gandhi, Swaminarayan had not grasped the essence of non-violence. In 1924, Gandhi applauded efforts of Swaminaryan and added that "what was accomplished in Gujarat by one person, Sahajanand [Swaminarayan], could not be accomplished by
9500-510: The love of God can be spread by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra . Vallabha visited the temple and performed a 7-day recitation of the Srimad Bhagavata . His sitting place is still famous as his baithakji , literally translating to his seat. It confirms his visit to Puri . Some of the pandits who participated became jealous of the young Vallabha, and wanted to test him. The next day
9625-435: The lower Rajput and Khati castes but not any lower. He allowed dalits and lower caste people to visit places of worship . However, Dalits - those outside of the caste system - were formally excluded from Swaminarayan temples. Members of a lower caste are prohibited from wearing a full sect mark (tilak chandlo) on their forehead. Even now, however, for the vast majority of Gujarat's lower-caste, Untouchable and tribal population,
9750-442: The main Jagannath temple, and begun by Anantavarman Chodaganga , the first king of the Eastern Ganga dynasty . Many of the temple rituals are based on Oddiyana Tantras which are the refined versions of Mahayana Tantras as well as Shabari Tantras which are evolved from Tantric Buddhism and tribal beliefs respectively. The local legends link the idols with aboriginal tribes and the daitapatis (servitors) claim to be descendants of
9875-511: The meeting with Malcolm, Swaminarayan gave him a copy of the Shikshapatri. This copy of the Shikshapatri is currently housed at the Bodleian Library at University of Oxford . Swaminarayan ordered the construction of several Hindu temples and he had built six huge temples by himself and installed the idols of various deities such as Radha Krishna , Nara-Narayana , Laksmi Narayana , Gopinath , Radha Ramana , and Madanamohana . The images in
10000-531: The menial service to Jagannath. This ritual signified that under the lordship of Jagannath, there is no distinction between the powerful sovereign Gajapati king and the most humble devotee. Moreover, the ruling dynasty instituted the Ratha Yatra at the completion of the great temple around 1150 AD. This festival was one of those Hindu festivals that was reported to the Western world very early. Odoric of Pordenone ,
10125-496: The mother side. Anantavarman was originally a Shaivite , and became a Vaishnavite sometime after he conquered the Utkala region, in which the temple is located, in 1112 CE. A 1134–1135 CE inscription records his donation to the temple. Therefore, the temple construction must have started sometime after 1112 CE. According to a story in the temple chronicles, it was founded by Anangabhimadeva II . Different chronicles variously mention
10250-503: The myth that moksha (salvation) was not attainable by everyone. He taught that the soul is neither male nor female, nor yoked to any specific caste. Swaminarayan was against animal sacrifices. To solve this problem, Swaminarayan conducted several large-scale yajnas involving priests from Varanasi . Swaminarayan was successful in reinstating ahimsa through several such large-scale yajnas. Swaminarayan stressed lacto vegetarianism among his followers and forbade meat consumption, codifying
10375-582: The name Sahajanand Swami. Despite opposition, in 1802, Ramanand handed over the leadership of the Uddhava Sampradaya to him before his death. According to the Swaminarayan tradition, Sahajanand Swami became known as Swaminarayan, and the Uddhava Sampradaya became known as the Swaminarayan Sampradaya, after a gathering in which he taught the Swaminarayan Mantra to his followers. He emphasized "moral, personal, and social betterment," and ahimsa . He
10500-549: The north, Jagannath Temple at Puri in the east, Dwarakadheesh Temple at Dwarka in the west and Ramanathaswamy Temple at Rameswaram in the south. Though ideologically, the temples are divided between the sects of Hinduism, namely Shaivism and Vaishnavism , the four pilgrimage sites are fully Hinduism . There are four abodes in the Himalayas , called Chota Char Dham (lit. "the small four abodes/seats"): Badrinath , Kedarnath , Gangotri and Yamunotri – all of these lie at
10625-670: The opportunity to install and use the sa-itrans-iast input handler which provides complete support for the ISO 15919 standard for the romanization of Indic languages as part of the m17n library. Or user can use some Unicode characters in Latin-1 Supplement, Latin Extended-A, Latin Extended Additional and Combining Diarcritical Marks block to write IAST. Only certain fonts support all the Latin Unicode characters essential for
10750-400: The opposite sex." This strict precept was one he likely internalized "after travelling as an ascetic throughout India [when] he was reported to vomit if approached by even the shadow of a woman". To help his male ascetic followers maintain their vow of celibacy, Swaminarayan taught “the woman who attracts attention is made up of bones, blood vessels, spittle, blood, mucus and feces; she is simply
10875-415: The poor by distributing food and drinking water. He undertook several social service projects and opened almshouses for the poor. Swaminarayan organized food and water relief to people during times of drought. Some suggest that Swaminarayan worked towards ending the caste system , allowing everyone into the Swaminarayan Sampradaya. However partaking in the consumption food of lower castes and caste pollution
11000-561: The popular shakta cults and ' gosai ' and ' nath ' ascetics for the contemptuous and instrumental way in which they viewed and treated women. These cults were often responsible for gross sexual abuse of women." Hardiman added that Swaminarayan's view towards women was not in line with this type of misogyny and was rooted in his desire to prevent ill-treatment of women along with promoting celibacy for ascetics. Swaminarayan "forbade all sadhus and sadhvis (that is, male and female ascetics) of his sect from having any contact whatsoever with members of
11125-483: The power of the State". IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration ( IAST ) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during the 19th century from suggestions by Charles Trevelyan , William Jones , Monier Monier-Williams and other scholars, and formalised by
11250-558: The premises, to cater to more pilgrims and visitors and provide them with enhanced security. The "Shree Mandir Parikrama" , also known as the Shree Jagannath Heritage Corridor (SJHC), is a 75-metre-long corridor around the Jagannath temple. It has been built to provide expansive and unobstructed corridors around the Meghanad Pacheri for giving an opportunity to devotees and pilgrims to have better darshan with
11375-464: The right side of the keyboard instead of Ctrl+Alt combination). Many systems provide a way to select Unicode characters visually. ISO/IEC 14755 refers to this as a screen-selection entry method . Microsoft Windows has provided a Unicode version of the Character Map program (find it by hitting ⊞ Win + R then type charmap then hit ↵ Enter ) since version NT 4.0 – appearing in
11500-542: The ritual involves installation of new images in the Jagannath Temple and the burial of the old images at the temple at Koili Vaikuntha . The festival is witnessed by millions of people and its budget exceeds ₹ 41,000,000 (US$ 490,000). More than three million devotees are estimated to have visited the temple during the Nabakalevara in 2015, making it one of the most visited festivals in the world. After independence,
11625-483: The romanisation of all Indic scripts , is an extension of IAST. The IAST letters are listed with their Devanagari equivalents and phonetic values in IPA , valid for Sanskrit , Hindi and other modern languages that use Devanagari script, but some phonological changes have occurred: * H is actually glottal , not velar . Some letters are modified with diacritics : Long vowels are marked with an overline (often called
11750-440: The seashore of Puri , and find a floating log to make an image from its trunk. Then, Indradyumna found the log of wood. He did a yajna , from which Narasimha appeared and instructed that Narayana should be made as a four-fold expansion , i.e., Paramatma as Vasudeva (Krishna), his Vyuha as Samkarshana (Balabhadra), his Yogamaya as Subhadra, and his Vibhava as Sudarshana . After this, Vishwakarma appeared in
11875-488: The sect consider Swaminarayan a pioneer of education of females in India. According to the author Raymond Brady Williams, "Swaminarayan is an early representative of the practice of advocacy of women's rights without personal involvement with women". To counter the practice of sati (self-immolation by a widow on her husband's funeral pyre), Swaminarayan argued that, as human life was given by God, it could be taken only by God, and that sati had no Vedic sanction. He went to
12000-681: The sect is out of bounds. Reginald Heber , the Lord Bishop of Calcutta, noted that disciples of Swaminarayan cut across all castes, and even included Muslims. He writes "they all pray to one God with no difference of castes. They live as if they were brothers." Furthermore, in a meeting with Swaminarayan, he noted that "[Swaminarayan] did not regard the subject as of much importance, but that he wished not to give offense (to ancient Hindu system); that people might eat separately or together in this world, but that above "oopur" pointing to heaven, those distinctions would cease." Swaminarayan worked thus to dispel
12125-478: The stone and metal icons found in most Hindu temples, the image of Jagannath is made of wood, and is ceremoniously replaced every 12 or 19 years by an exact replica. The temple is one of the Char Dham pilgrimage sites. It is also famous because many legends believe that Krishna 's heart was placed here, and the material that it is made from damages the heart, so they have to change it every seven years. The temple
12250-551: The supreme being is not formless and that God always has a divine form. Swaminarayan's philosophy asserts that Parabrahman and Aksharabrahman are two distinct eternal realities. Swaminarayan strived to maintain good relationships with people of other religions, sometimes meeting prominent leaders. His followers cut across religious boundaries, including people of Muslim and Parsi backgrounds. Swaminarayan's personal attendants included Khoja Muslims. In Kathiawad , many Muslims wore kanthi necklaces given by Swaminarayan. He also had
12375-525: The temple complex meant for religious congregations. The most prominent is the Mukti Mandapa , the congregation hall of the holy seat of selected literate Brahmins. Daily offerings are made to the deity six times a day. These include: The temple's kitchen is the second largest in the world. Tradition holds that all the Mahaprasad that is cooked in the temple kitchen is supervised by Goddess Lakshmi ,
12500-528: The temple has increased ahead of Ratha Yatra , the homecoming festival of the deities of Jagannath temple. In the wake of terror alert on 27 June 2012, the security forces were increased to ensure smooth functioning of the crowded Ratha Yatra and Suna Besha . As part of the modernisation of the temple premises and surroundings, the temple's security force has been further advanced, such as 44 police platoons with 30 police officers each, and 135 CCTV cameras with advanced face-scanning technology have been installed in
12625-465: The temple, they could pray to the Patita Pavana. The statues of the two guards to the temple, Jaya and Vijaya , stand on either side of the doorway. Just before the commencement of the Ratha Yatra , the deities of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are taken out of the temple through this gate. On their return from the Gundicha Temple , they have to ceremonially placate Goddess Lakshmi , whose deity
12750-460: The temple. Every year, the main deities of Jagannath , Balabhadra , Subhadra and Sudarshan , after the holy Snana Yatra on the Jyeshtha Purnima , go to a secret altar, named Anavasara Ghar , where they remain for the next dark fortnight, or Krishna paksha . Hence, devotees are not allowed to view them. So devotees worship at the nearby temple of Alarnath at Brahmagiri , an icon of
12875-426: The temples built by Swaminarayan provide evidence of the priority of Krishna. Disciples of Swaminarayan composed devotional poems which are widely sung by the tradition during festivals. Swaminarayan introduced fasting and devotion among followers. He conducted the festivals of Vasant Panchami , Holi , and Janmashtami with organization of the traditional folk dance raas . The first temple Swaminarayan constructed
13000-468: The time of his death, Swaminarayan had also ordered construction of temples in Muli , Dholka and Jetalpur . From early on, ascetics have played a major role in the Swaminarayan sect. They contribute towards growth and development of the movement, encouraging people to follow a pious and religious life. Tradition maintains that Swaminarayan initiated 500 ascetics as paramahamsas in a single night. Paramahamsa
13125-587: The tower, like a ridge of mountain peaks. The Nila Chakra (lit. blue discus) is the discus mounted on the top of the shikhara of the Jagannath temple. As per custom, everyday a different flag is waved on the Nila Chakra. The flag hoisted on the Nila Chakra is called the Patita Pavana (lit. "Purifier of the Fallen"), and is equivalent to the image of the deities placed in the sanctum sanctorum. The Nila Chakra
13250-483: The transliteration of Indic scripts according to the IAST and ISO 15919 standards. For example, the Arial , Tahoma and Times New Roman font packages that come with Microsoft Office 2007 and later versions also support precomposed Unicode characters like ī . Many other text fonts commonly used for book production may be lacking in support for one or more characters from this block. Accordingly, many academics working in
13375-701: The triad deities are lodged on the ratnavedi , or throne of pearls. In Rekha Deula style, there is the Mukhashala , (frontal porch), the Natamandapa , also known as the Jagamohan (audience/dancing hall), and the Bhogamandapa (offerings hall). The main temple is a curvilinear temple, and crowning the top is the Neelachakra , an eight-spoked wheel of Vishnu . It is made out of Ashtadhatu , an alloy of eight metals, and
13500-507: The wheels, the wood-carved charioteer and horses, and the inverted lotuses on the wall behind the throne. The huge chariots of Jagannath pulled during Ratha Yatra is the etymological origin of the English word ' Juggernaut '. The Ratha Yatra is also termed as Shri Gundicha Yatra . The most significant ritual associated with Ratha Yatra is the Chhera Pahara (lit. sweeping with water). During
13625-563: The year of construction as 1196, 1197, 1205, 1216, or 1226. This suggests that the temple's construction was completed or that the temple was renovated during the reign of Anantavarman's son, Anangabhima. The temple complex was further developed during the reigns of the subsequent kings, including those of the Ganga dynasty and the Gajapati dynasty . The temple annals, the Madala Panji , records that
13750-503: Was Aksharbrahm manifest. Followers of BAPS believe that the acharyas were given administrative leadership of the sect while Gunatitanand Swami was given spiritual leadership by Swaminarayan. The current spiritual and administrative leader of BAPS is Mahant Swami Maharaj . The followers of the Maninagar Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan hold Gopalanand Swami as the successor to Swaminarayan. The current leader of this sect
13875-402: Was Ekadashi , a fasting day where one must fast from grains. The pandits gave Vallabha rice prasad of Lord Jagannath, for which the temple is still famous. If Vallabha ate it, he would break his vow of fasting, but, if he did not take it, he would disrespect Jagannath. Hence, Vallabha, with all honour and respect, accepted the prasad in his hand. He stood there in the temple, spent the rest of
14000-466: Was 22 years older than Nilkanth, answered the five questions to Nilkanth's satisfaction. Nilkanth decided to stay for the opportunity to meet Ramanand Swami, whom he met a few months after his arrival in Gujarat. He later claimed in the Vachnamrut that during this period, he took up a severe penance to eliminate his mother's flesh and blood from his body so that the sign of his physical attachment to family,
14125-456: Was an incarnation of Krishna . The images and stories of Swaminarayan and Krishna have coincided in the liturgy of the sect. The story of the birth of Swaminarayan parallels that of Krishna's birth from the scripture Bhagavata Purana . Most of his followers believe that Swaminarayan is the complete manifestation of Narayana or Purushottama Narayana - the Supreme Being and superior to other avatars. The belief of many followers that their founder
14250-469: Was built, and at present, it often becomes a subject to controversy and debates that have lasted for several decades. According to Ganeshi Lal , the former Governor of Odisha , foreigners can enter the temple only if he/she can meet the Gajapati servitors and the Shankaracharya , then he/she could also be allowed to witness Jagannath. But, this theory has not wielded influence yet, and continues to be
14375-463: Was completely removed. According to the sect, Nilkanth's understanding of the metaphysical and epistemological concepts of the pancha-tattvas (five eternal elements), together with his mental and physical discipline, inspired senior swamis of Ramanand Swami. Nilkanth Varni received sannyasa initiation from Ramanand Swami on 20 October 1800, and with it was granted the names Sahajanand Swami and Narayan Muni to signify his new status. At
14500-404: Was devoid of any hands. But a divine voice told Indradyumna to install them in the temple. It has also been widely believed that in spite of the deity being without hands, it can watch over the world and be its lord. Thus, the idiom. Non- Hindus (excluding Jains , Sikhs , Buddhists ) and foreigners are not permitted to enter the temple. Such a rule is believed to exist ever since the temple
14625-471: Was forbidden by him even for medicinal purposes. Many of his followers took vows before becoming his disciple. He stated that four elements need to be conquered for ultimate salvation: dharma, bhakti (devotion), gnana (knowledge) and vairagya (detachment). Doctrinally, Swaminarayan was close to eleventh century philosopher Ramanuja and was critical of Adi Shankara 's concept of Advaita , or monistic non-dualism . Swaminarayan's ontology maintained that
14750-455: Was humiliating for him to see two religious leaders meeting at the head of two small armies, his being the smaller contingent. As a result of the meeting, both leaders gained mutual respect for one another. Swaminarayan enjoyed a good relationship with the government of the ruling East India Company . The first temple he built, in Ahmedabad , was built on 5,000 acres (20 km) of land given by
14875-546: Was in Ahmedabad in 1822, with the land for construction given by the Company Government. Following a request of devotees from Bhuj , Swaminarayan asked his follower Vaishnavananand to build a temple there. Construction commenced in 1822, and the temple was built within a year. A temple in Vadtal followed in 1824, a temple in Dholera in 1826, a temple in Junagadh in 1828 and a temple in Gadhada , also in 1828. By
15000-508: Was later known as Swaminarayan after the mantra he taught at a gathering, in Faneni, a fortnight after the death of Ramanand Swami. He gave his followers a new mantra, known as the Swaminarayan mantra , to repeat in their rituals: Swaminarayan . When chanting this mantra, some devotees went into samadhi , and claimed that they could see their personal gods. As early as 1804, Swaminarayan, who
15125-729: Was located in the Konark Sun Temple . Later, the Maratha guru , Brahmachari Gosain, brought this pillar from Konark . Apart from the Singhadwara, which is the main entrance to the temple, there are three other entrances facing north, south and west. They are named after the sculptures of animals guarding them. The other entrances are the Hathidwara or the Elephant Gate, the Vyaghradwara or
15250-440: Was not supported by him. A political officer in Gujarat, Mr. Williamson reported to Bishop Herber that Swaminarayan had "destroyed the yoke of caste." He instructed his paramahamsas to collect alms from all sections of society and appointed people from the lower strata of society as his personal attendants. Members of the lower castes were attracted to the movement as it improved their social status. Swaminarayan would eat along with
15375-572: Was reported to have performed miracles, was described as a manifestation of God in the first work written by a disciple and paramahamsa, Nishkulanand Swami . This work, the Yama Danda , was the first piece of literature written within the Swaminarayan sect. Swaminarayan himself is said to have intimated that he was a manifestation of God in a meeting with Reginald Heber , the Lord Bishop of Calcutta , in 1825. Some of Swaminarayan's followers believe he
15500-511: Was the incarnation of the Supreme God has also drawn criticism. According to Professor Raymond B. Williams, Swaminarayan was criticized because he received large gifts from his followers and dressed and traveled as a Maharaja even though he had taken the vows of renunciation of the world. Swaminarayan responded that he accepts gifts for the emancipation of his followers. Swaminarayan encouraged his followers to combine devotion and dharma to lead
15625-525: Was the inherent right of all people, including women, despite considerable criticism from those in his own contemporary society who "loathed the uplift of lower caste women". At that time, influential and wealthy individuals educated their girls through private and personal tuition. Male followers of Swaminarayan made arrangements to educate their female family members. The literacy rate among females began to increase during Swaminarayan's time, and they were able to give discourses on spiritual subjects. Members of
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