Sachiya Mata Temple

Sachiya Mata (also spelled Sachay Mata & sachchiya mata), ( _hi. सच्चियाय माता/सच्चिया माता)The mother goddess, is worshipped as "kuldevi" (first person of their lineage) by Oswal,Charans, Jains and many other castes living in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Her temple is located in Ossian, near Jodhpur city of Rajasthan. Present temple dates back to 12th century, however original temple would have been established not later than 8th Century.

Hindu Mythological History

There are two stories to explain the origin of name "Sachiya" for goddess. According one story temple belongs to goddess Sachi who was a wife of the God Indra. Sachi was a daughter of "Asur" king Paulom. The King Paulom ruled a great kingdom and was believed to be benevolent king. Brahmins (Aryans) were also patronize by him, for example Shukracharya was pursuing research on immortality under his patronage. Vrut, who was an "Asura" (non-aryan), was serving as chief of army of Paulom. He was very brave and sensible person. He wanted to marry Sachi. However, Sachi considered this proposal derogatory for herself, since did not wanted to marry a person servant to his father. Knowing the thoughts of Sachi Vrut left the service of Paulom and worshiped lord Shiva, who is a common god of "Asura" (Non-Aryan) and Aryan. Shiva gave him blessing and virtue that he would not die by known weapons of that time. Vrut with his charm assembled a great army and with virtues of immortality set out to win the Aryan kingdom, where he can carve out a kingdom greater than Paulom's. Indra who is regarded as king of gods in Hindu, also had crush on Sachi and wanted to marry her. He had also responsibility to defend Aryan kingdom from Vrut. Indra knowing that Vrut has virtues of immortality, he approached to sage Dadhichi. Dadhichi had bones that were tougher than any of the known toughness to human kind. He gave his bone to Indra by performing self sacrifice to prepare a weapon out of it. The weapon, Indra prepared come to known as Vajra. It is note worthy point that highest award of bravery in India that is "Param Vir Chakra" bears the symbol of Vajra. Since bones were not know to be material for weapon, this defied the condition of immortality for Vrut. Both the army met in battle ground to fight but Indra made a proposal that instead of allowing fight of full army which will result in big carnage, only they two should fight and whoever wins the war of duo will take over other's army and will marry Sachi. Indra came out victorious in this war and married to Sachi.

History according Jain Records

As per a stone inscriptions at Jain temple of Osian there is one different story about the name of Sachiya Mata. [http://www.bafnawadi.com/Sachchiya.htm] . According to this story, a Jain monk Acharya Shrimad Vijay Ratnaprabhasuriji Maharaj Sahib visited town Ossian to perform Anjan Salakha at newly created temple of God Mahaveer around period of 43 A.D. The temple of Mahavir was built by Uhad who was minister of King Upaldeo. At that time Ossian was known as Upkeshpur. In the town of Upkeshpur, there existed a temple of "Jagat Bhavani" (great goddess) Chamunda Mata. In order to receive grace of the goddess, sacrifice of male-buffaloes use to be made in temple during festival of Navratri. When Jain monk Vijay Ratnaprabhasuriji maharaj came to know about this practice, he felt deep pain and sympathy for innocent animals. Using his influence on minister and king, he made them to ban this practice. With this mother goddess Chamunda became enraged and angry with Jain monk. He was tortured and vexed by goddess. However, the Jain monk by virtue of his self-restraint and utter-devotion to cause against cruelty, changed the heart of goddess Chamunda. According to this story, in the end goddess Chamunda herself declared that she is convinced by sinful nature of this practice and would not accept any offering which carries blood or symbol of blood (this includes flowers in red color). She also offered the blessings for followers of Jain so cause of non-violence can perpetuate. Jain monk gave a new name Sachi Mata to goddess Chamunda, which literally means real mother.

In present time, Sachiyaymataji has been worshiping with lapsi (an Indian sweet dish), saffron, sandal and dhoop.

ee also

* Indrani
* Bafna
* Jodhpur
* Oswal
* Charan

External links

* [http://www.jodhpurindia.net/ossian-city-temples/sachiya-mata-temple.html Sachiya Mata Temple, Jodhpur]
* [http://www.bafnawadi.com/Sachchiya.htm Jain Version of Story about Sachiya Mata]
* [http://www.oswals.net] Jain Records and references