Taranga

A tall Solanki-period temple on a wooded hill, raised under Kumarapala and among the least altered of its age.

A hilltop temple in northern Gujarat, built in the twelfth century under Kumarapala, the Chaulukya king whose conversion to Jainism under Hemachandra’s influence is one of the tradition’s best-attested royal patronages.

The principal shrine holds an image of Ajitanatha, the second Tirthankara, said to be cut from a single block of white marble large enough that transporting it up the hill was itself remembered as an achievement. A cluster of smaller temples surrounds it, added over the centuries that followed.

The hill is shared: a Buddhist cave complex from an earlier period sits nearby, and the name Taranga is traditionally connected to a local queen rather than to the temple itself.

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