Jal Mandir

The Jal Mandir, the Water Temple, rises from a lotus-covered tank at Pawapuri, the sinless town of ancient Magadha, and marks the place where Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, was cremated. In 527 BCE, Mahavira passed his final chaturmas at Pawapuri and attained nirvana there on the night of the Dipawali festival, which Jains commemorate at every Diwali.

Pilgrims carried away so much soil from his funeral pyre that the spot became a pit and filled with water, and Mahavira's elder brother Nandivardhan is said to have raised the first shrine within the pond.

The present white-marble temple is shaped like a vimana chariot and houses the foot impression of Mahavira; a stone bridge six hundred feet long joins it to the bank.