Shankheshwar

One of the most visited Parshvanatha shrines in Gujarat, rebuilt several times on a site held to be far older.

One of the most visited Svetambara pilgrimage sites in Gujarat, built around an image of Parshvanatha that tradition holds to be extremely old — older, popular belief runs, than most other surviving murtis, with a lineage of legendary owners reaching back before the current temple.

The image is named for shankha, the conch, though the more common account ties the place-name to a nearby village rather than to the icon directly. What is not disputed is the intensity of ordinary devotion here: this is a temple people travel to specifically to ask for help, in a tradition that is often wary of transactional prayer, and Shankheshwar is where that caution is most visibly set aside.

The current structure is relatively recent, rebuilt after earlier temples on the site were damaged; the image itself is what the pilgrimage is for, not the architecture around it.

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