Palitana Temples

The Palitana temples crown the twin ridges of Shatrunjaya hill above Palitana in southern Gujarat, forming the holiest pilgrimage complex of Svetambara Jainism. Jains hold that the first Tirthankara Rishabhanatha, or Adinatha, preached here and that twenty-three of the twenty-four Tirthankaras visited the hill. His first disciple Pundarika attained nirvana here, giving the hill its older name of Pundarikgiri.

The earliest shrines date to the eleventh century, and a marble image of Pundarika was consecrated in 1120. The principal Adinatha temple's hall was renovated in 1157, while the four-faced Chaumukh temple was raised in 1616.

Nearly nine hundred white marble temples cluster along the ridges in nine fortified enclosures called tuks. Repeated damage and rebuilding, especially from the sixteenth century, shaped the complex. No one, priest or pilgrim, may spend the night on the sacred hill.