Bhandasar Jain Temple

A red sandstone temple in the old city, known for painted interiors and for a tradition that ghee was mixed into its mortar.

Built by Bhandasa Oswal, a wealthy Jain merchant, from 1468 and completed after his death in 1514, in the old city of Bikaner rather than on a hill or at a remove from it — a merchant's temple, close to where the merchant lived.

The temple's own tradition holds that ghee, not mortar, bound its stone, and that the desert climate has kept it from ever spoiling; locals point to a sheen on the walls on hot days as the proof. Whatever the mortar actually was, the three-storey building is genuinely known for something else as well: frescoes in gold leaf running the length of its walls, narrating the lives of all twenty-four Tirthankaras, and a white marble Sumatinatha enthroned on silver on the ground floor.

Written for Jain Times. Corrections are welcome — see sources and licences.