Shri Antrix Parshvanath Tirth, Village-Shirpur, District-Washim (Maharashtra)

At present there are four Jain temples in the village Shirpur, The Atishay kshetra Shri Antariksh Parshvanath Basti Mandir, The Pavali Digamoari Mandir, The Parshvanath Shvetambar Mandir The Chintamani Parshvanath Digambari Mandir.

The temple of Shri Antariksha Parshvanath is also known as the Basti Mandir is in the middle of the Shirpur village. This temple is said to have been rebuild about 250 years ago. The lnam Record about this temple which was registered in 1867 corroborates the above mentioned fact.

The story told about this temple is that two Jain demons Khara and Dushana made an image of cow dung and sand and used to worship it. They hid it in a pit beside a river on the side of a hill near Werul (Ellora), a village near Aurangabad in the then Nizam's Dominions. Long afterwards Raja of Ellichpur happened to pass by the spot and saw a little pool of water, no larger than cow's hoof-mark. He himself suffered from white leprosy, but on applying this water to his body was immediately cured. His queen was surprised at this miracle and asked how he had been cured, and went with him to the spot, where she prayed to the unseen god to manifest himself. That night the image appeared to her in a dream and directed that it should be dug up and carried in a cart to Ellichpur but it warned her that the king, who was to drive the cart himself must on no account look back. While carrying the idol, the king ignored the warning and he did looked back near Shirpur. The idol got suspended in the air and did not move from there. The king built a temple there over the idol having neither arch nor mortar.

The principal idol of Antariksha Parshvanath is made of black stone. The idol appears to be a fine specimen of sculpture and is about three and a half feet high. It is in a typical meditative posture which is known as dhyanastha ardha-padmasana. There is a hood of the cobra on the top of the idol. It is believed that the idol was in a floating position in the past and has come to rest on ground at only one point that is the little finger of one of the foot. However, a plausible explanation of its position as it appears to the human eye is that the idol is supported on the base at one point and is balanced in such a way that its entire weight is supported at that point. The principal interest about the same is that except for one point the entire idol is floating, and is hence called antariksha. However this logic is against the principles of physics.