Bhelupur Parshvanatha Temple

The traditional birthplace of Parshvanatha within Varanasi, marking the same city that Suparshvanatha’s Jain birth site also claims.

Bhelupur is held to mark not just Parshvanatha’s birth but two further moments the tradition tracks separately: his conception and his renunciation, the three together forming three of his kalyanakas at a single site rather than scattered across different places, as most Tirthankaras’ life-events are.

A short distance away, in the Bhadaini locality of the same city, a separate temple marks the birth of Suparshvanatha, seventh of the Tirthankaras, born there to King Pratishtha and Queen Prithvi — giving Varanasi two Tirthankara birthplaces within its bounds, each with its own dedicated shrine rather than one temple standing in for both.

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