1000-yr-old trail of footprints engraved in stones found in MP forest; historians link it to Jain monk

Bhopal: Deep inside the forests of Raisen in MP, an archaeologist has discovered a trail of footprints engraved in stones, stretching across nearly 800 metres of rocky terrain in Jamgarh village, along with an inscription in early Nagari script, tentatively dated around the 10th-11th century. The inscription mention the footprints to be of a holy man who walked through the area a thousand years ago. Historians believe the pathway may have links to a Jain monk.

The discovery was made during a field survey by archaeologist Nancy Sharma and her colleague Milnath Petele of the Bhopal chapter of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).

Nancy, who led the survey with the help of local villagers and officially reported the site, said: “I had gone to a nearby site for an inspection when some locals told me about this spot that was way above the village and not so easy to find, unless you were looking for it. Some of the footsteps have withered with time, some have been tampered with, but most of them are still well-preserved.”

What transformed the find into an important archaeological discovery was a weathered two-line inscription engraved beside the first prominent pair of footprints. It contains words such as ‘Śrī’, ‘siddha’, ‘pāda’, ‘pandita’ and ‘kāritaḥ’ — terms linked to sacred commemorative traditions, said M M Upadhyay, convener of INTACH, MP.

“The findings were examined by Ravi Shankar, former director of the epigraphy department of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), who identified the script as early Nagari characters of the Parmar period,” said Upadhyay, adding that the region once formed part of the Parmar empire.

Parmar history expert and veteran archaeologist Ramesh Yadav said: “In the 10th-11th century, there are many instances of Jain temples coming up in MP. Jain temples near Bhojpur are an example. These footprints found in Raisen could most likely be of a very learned Jain saint. Use of the word ‘siddha’ in the inscription points to this fact, as this term has been prominently used for Jain munis (sages). The way those footsteps end almost 600 metres from the caves suggests the saint could be on the way to his moksha samadhi.”

According to Arvind Jain, an expert on ancient Jain history, the word ‘pandita’ in the inscription may have been used to denote the elevated stature, wisdom and enlightenment level of the saint.

Sacred footprints are known in Buddhist, Jain and Shaiva traditions, but archaeologists say a long-inscribed pathway carved across living rock is rare — turning Jamgarh into not just an archaeological site, but perhaps the preserved echo of a saint’s journey into eternity.