Antariksha Parshvanatha, Shirpur

An image whose name means "suspended in air", claimed and contested by both traditions for more than a century.

The name records a specific traditional claim: that the Parshvanatha image hangs clear of its pedestal, with a cloth once said to pass beneath it through the gap. Tradition traces the image to King Khara of the Ramayana, lost for centuries in a well near Ellora before a cart carrying it toward Ellichpur was told never to look back — the driver looked back near Shirpur, and the image is said to have stopped and hung there rather than continue.

Whatever the image’s own history, the shrine’s modern history is a documented one: a court declaration held that Svetambara trustees were entitled to its exclusive management, a ruling Digambara bodies have long disputed, and worship rights have been litigated and periodically restricted by court order for more than a century. That dispute is part of what the site is now, not a footnote to it.

Written for Jain Times. Corrections are welcome — see sources and licences.