Jai Jinendra!
When we restarted with redesigning www.jainheritagecentres.com (JHC) it was thought of having a design that will give a good aesthetic feeling. Additionally, with myself coming from a web development background and having worked in a corporate environment, I had thought of giving it a corporate touch and following some design standards. In addition to this as you have seen in our earlier design we had focused on a photo collage with Lord Bahubali being the main focus. Having thought all these I was just thinking of the banner with an attractive design and wasn’t very particular about any specific preferences, images or thoughts. However, as I moved ahead with the thought process and started working I decided to move ahead with a collage. But still wasn’t very sure on the images and its composition. Read on to see as to how we came up with the current design.
You might have had a look at the new design of JHC and particularly the top banner. The banner might have created many questions in your mind - about the thoughts and motives behind having a collage and also about having the images in a particular order. This is quite obvious from a visitor’s point of view and I guess this has been the food for your thoughts at least for a while. This has been the thoughts of many visitors.
Having born in South India and Karnataka in particular the very thought of Shravanabelagola ignites in me a feeling of devotion and it takes back to my childhood memories. This is because of the following reasons: my frequent visits to the Kshetra since childhood (the days of seedling), the very structure of Lord Bahubali and having the idols of Lord Parshwanath (at the Antarala Parshwanth Swamy Basadi, Chandragiri) and Goddess Padmavathi (at the Kattale Basadi, Chandragiri) as our family deities (kuladevata). Whenever I have started with new tasks or ventures in life I have always offered my prayers to this holy place of the Shramanas and the deities. The same facts have influenced me again.
The top banner is made up of the following images (starting from left to right):
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Lord Bahubali on the Indragiri hillock, Shravanabelagola (Hassan District, Karnataka, India).
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Idols of the 24 Tirthankaras consecrated in a row at the Bhandari Basadi, Shravanabelagola.
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Lotus temple, Hastinapur (Meerut District, Uttar Pradesh, India).
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An ancient Jain temple, Chittorgarh (Rajasthan, India).
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A view of the newly constructed Jain temple of Philadelphia (USA).
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A ruined Tirthankara idol in the padmasana.
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A chakra.
In the following paragraphs you will read through the motives behind using these images.
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Lord Bahubali on the Indragiri hillock, Shravanabelagola (Hassan District, Karnataka, India) and Idols of the 24 Tirthankaras (prophets) consecrated in a row at the Bhandari Basadi, Shravanabelagola - To begin with we have started with the image of Lord Bahubali. Bahubali, though not a Tirthankara, occupies a unique place in the Jaina tradition and is very often referred to as Prathama Mokshagami (the first person to attain salvation in the Jaina tradition even before the Tirthankaras including his father Lord Adinatha the 1st Tirthanakra). Shravanabelagola, has occupied a very important place in the history of Jainism. It started spreading its tentacles to other parts of south India from here. This image signifies that the website intends to cover information of Jainism and Jain tirths starting from the Prathama mokshagami Lord Bahubali and from the extreme southern tip of India to the other parts of the India and world.
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Idols of the 24 Tirthankaras consecrated in a row at the Bhandari Basadi, Shravanabelagola – This image has been used as a further continuation of the previous image and conveys the message that the site will continue to cover information related to Prathama mokshagami Lord Bahubali to the last Tirthankara Lord Mahavira.
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Lotus temple, Hastinapur (Meerut District, Uttar Pradesh, India) – As all of us know the present Hastinapur consists of the newly constructed Jambudweepa that has been formed under the guidance of Her Holiness Aryika 105 Sri Gnanamathi Mathaji. This is a continuation of the previous image and signifies that information related to tirths in the northern part of India including the erstwhile Jambudweep will be accommodated.
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An ancient Jain temple, Chittorgarh (Rajasthan, India) – This image conveys the message that the site intends to cover information related to ancient Jain tirths in the Northern parts of India including Rajasthan. Here an image of Rajasthan has been used to represent the Jain tirths of North India.
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A view of the newly constructed Jain temple of Philadelphia, (USA) – This image represents the Jain temples located outside India. This signifies that the site also focuses in covering information about Jainism and Jain temples outside India. Further the image is of a newly constructed Jain temple in Philadelphia. This image has been intentionally used to convey that we will also be focused on covering information on the latest happenings in Jainism and at places of worship in India and overseas.
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A ruined Tirthankara idol in the padmasana – This is the image of a ruined Tirthankara idol that was auctioned on Sothbys. This idol is similar to the Jain idols found in many museums. This image conveys that the site also intends to focus on information related to Jain ruins and Jain idols found in museums, open fields and temples. Moving a step further ahead we intend to support any such initiative that will focus upon the restoration of these antiquities.
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A Chakra – Chakra stands as a symbol of perpetual change and Dharma. This image signifies that the site intends to cover information related to Jainism since time immemorial and the changes that have taken place over a period of time.
Tagline – The tagline “Celebrating Jain Heritage…..Globally!” that has been used on the banner will be used all through out the site and we would like to re-brand ourselves with this tagline. JHC, having been a part of internet Jain community over the past 7 years has been actively involved either directly or indirectly in the propagation of Jainism in some way or the other and has been instrumental in the celebration of Jain heritage many ways. This sentence in a way further endorses this activity and conveys that our team would like to continue this in the days ahead. The usage of the dots soon after the word “Heritage” conveys that the activity of celebrating Jain Heritage through JHC would be an ongoing process and will be done globally.
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