Hastinapur

A site of great antiquity in tradition, now a large complex including the Jambudweep model of Jain cosmology.

An ancient city on the upper Ganges plain, and in Jain tradition the birthplace of three consecutive Tirthankaras — Shantinatha, Kunthunatha and Aranatha — each also recorded as having ruled the world as Chakravartin before renouncing it.

Hastinapur is better known to most of India from the Mahabharata, where it is the Kaurava and Pandava capital; the Jain and epic traditions share the place without sharing an account of it, and the temple complex that has grown up on the traditional site is entirely a modern, twentieth-century building project rather than a survival from antiquity.

Several distinct temple complexes now stand at Hastinapur, corresponding to the different kalyanakas held to have occurred there, and the town functions as a working pilgrimage centre rather than a ruin.

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