Manibhadra Veer - A brief History

A brief history :

Manibhadra was a great king who was devoted to Jain religion and preachings. He had enormous wealth and was also very fond of 36 musical instruments. He was declared as the Kshetrapal (Protector of the Area) because of his tremendous devotion.

Manibhadraveer, as the legend goes, was born in his previous birth in Ujjain as a Jain shravak Manekshaw. He was a staunch Jain Shravak whose Guru was Maharaj Hemvimal Suriji. During his chaturmas in Agra, Manekshaw was deeply influenced by his Guru's discourses on the sacredness and importance of Shatrunjay. Due to this, he decided to undertake the arduous penance of going on foot to Shatrunjay to do the Navanuni Yatra and end it with a 2-day fast under the Ryan tree.

With his Guru's blessings, he set off on the auspicious day of Kartiki Poonam. When he was close to present day Magarwada, a gang of dacoits attacked him and the group and fighting them He gave his life to save others severing his head, arms and lower body. Manekshaw, who was totally absorbed in his Navkar mantra jaap and the sacredness of Shatrunjay, was reborn as Indra Manibhadraveerdev. Another school of thought says that Maneksha lost his life in a battle to save cows.

It is mythologically stated that while fighting, His body got cut into three (3) parts and fell in three different directions. The “Pindi”  ie. “the part below the waist” fell at Magarwada in Gujarat, The “dhad” ie. the body at Aglod in Gujarat and the “Mashtak”, ie. the Head in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. Originally there are only this three places of Mianibhadra Veer in India - UJJAIN, AGLOD and MAGARWADA.

It is also believed, that, His Guru's disciples were facing many difficulties because of the Bhairvos. According to the Dev vaani, his Guru came to Magarwada, and sat down in Dhyan to overcome these difficulties. That is when Manibhadraveer decided to help his Guru to overcome the obstacles caused by the Bhairvos. He subdued them. His Guru honoured him by installing a 'pind' of his legs in Magarwada on Maha Sud Pancham day and constructed the temple there.

 

Today, people flock to Magarwada in large numbers to pray to Manibhadraveer to solve their problems and help them overcome their obstacles.

Thus His Highness Lord Manibhadraveer sacrified his life and became a Martyr (“Shaheed”) fighting for Jainism. It is also said that if someone makes darshan or worships Lord Manibhadraveer in all the three locations in one day, ie. Between Sunrise to Sunset, the same is the best possible way of offering ones prayers and devotion. Logistically, it is possible and would be covered in the following section.

Some salient features of Lord Manibhadra veer :

• His face on statues is sometimes depicted mostly as Varah (Boar).
• His idols are shown with four arms, and sometimes we also see him with six arms.
• The carrier of Manibhadra Dev is Airavat, the white elephant with multiple trunks.
• He is highly respected among the Tapagachha sect of Sawetambar Jains.
• He is specially worshipped on ‘‘Ashtami’’,  “Chaudas’’ and ‘’Divali’’
• On pacham of every month large number of devotees come here to offer worship.
• Sunday and Thursday are supposedly His favourite days and one can also pay respects to the Lord by remaining on Jain diet (No Onion-Potato-Garlic and underground food)
• Sukhadi and Shreefal (Coconut) is his favourite food and is offered as Prasad.

Note : Women devotees can do darshan / worship him and offer prayers, but can not offer Puja or do idol-worship by applying Kesar (Safron) and Chandan to the Lord.