NEW DELHI: All through Saturday, the Chhoti Dadabari Jain temple in South Extension saw a steady stream of visitors coming to observe a “miracle” they had heard of on phone and WhatsApp. A marble carving of a Jain saint’s feet, known as “charan pratishtha”, was said to be releasing saffron water.

The “charan pratishtha” is structurally a square marble slab with a pair of feet carved on it, said to represent the feet of a Jain saint. Temple officials say it is 400 years old. Temple administrative officer M S Parikh claimed that early on Saturday afternoon, he saw saffron water ooze out of the toes on the structure. “I could clearly see a trickle ooze through the toes. When I saw it, around 1.30pm, the structure was covered in orange. The distinct smell of saffron filled the air,” says Parikh. By the time TOI visited the premises, the structure was covered with a wood-and-glass box, through which it could be seen but not touched.

“It is a matter of faith. In faith, there is no scientific explanation. Our knowledge is limited. We have to surrender to what we see,” says Jitendra Rakyan, president of the temple trust.

Federation of Indian Rationalists Association (FIRA) president Narendra Nayak says that when looked at scientifically, it is hard to believe that the saffron water spontaneously oozed out of the marble structure. “It has to come from somewhere outside,” he says.

The faithful feel otherwise. “You can see it, and you have to believe it. It is not superstition,” says 75-year old Sajjan Jain, a devotee who has been coming to the temple since she was a young girl.

Rakyan explains that a similar occurrence had taken place in the Delhi temple about 15 years ago as well. “That too was in October. It started at night and stopped by morning,” he says. Devotees say that the occurrence, though rare, is not unheard of. “It has happened in other Dadabari temples. I have heard of the phenomenon before, but today I saw it for the first time. It is reassuring. It makes one feel that god is watching over us,” says Coimbatore-based designer Abhita Jain, who happened to be visiting the temple.

Modern-day miracles have often been hotly debated. Back in 1995, a miracle with a temple idol made international headlines. This was when idols of Lord Ganesha were seen to be accepting milk. Many thronged temples, in India and abroad, to see the miracle at work. Rationalists and scientists later explained that the phenomenon occurred because of “capillary action”, where liquid rises through the porous ceramic with which idols were made. In 2009, a picture of the Virgin Mary in St Mary’s Jacobite Syrian Church in Kattachira, Kerala, was reported to be shedding tears. FIRA countered claims of it being a miracle.

In Delhi, Brothers Samkit and Shrenik Jain, young men in their 20s, are baffled by the sight at the temple. “I have never seen something like this before. Older people say that this happens when the gods come to pay a visit,” says Samkit.

“There is no CCTV camera here,” points out Shrenik, and adds, “It’s not a special day, but you know, today’s date is a palindrome,” he says, referring to Saturday’s date which when written in the date-month-year format, reads the same forwards and backwards.

