Idar Jain Temples

An Aravalli hill town holding temples of both traditions, its main shrine reached by six hundred steps up the old fort hill.

Idar is a working pilgrimage centre for both traditions at once rather than a site claimed by one and merely visited by the other: the town holds five Svetambara temples and three Digambara, and a further Digambara shrine stands separately on the fort hill above.

Tradition traces the hill shrine’s founding image to King Samprati, who is held to have had a Shantinatha installed there some two hundred and eighty-five years after Mahavira’s nirvana; a later Chalukya king, Kumarapala, is credited with building the standing temple and installing an Adishvara image of his own. Reaching it means climbing six hundred steps from the base of the fort — the Aravallis giving Idar the same natural defence that shaped so many of this region’s hill forts, temple included.

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