Vidisha is considered to be Puranakshetras Jain tirtha. The Jain temples are located in

Vidisha district Vidisha District (विदिशा) is in Madhya Pradesh state, in central India. The city of Vidisha is the administrative headquarters of the district. Geography The district is bounded by the districts of Ashoknagar to the northeast, Saga ...

in state of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. According to Jain belief, Vidisha is the birthplace of

Shitalanatha Shitalanatha was the tenth tirthankara of the present age according to Jainism. According to Jain beliefs, he became a siddha, a liberated soul which has destroyed all of its karma. Jains believe Shitalanatha was born to King Dradhrath and Quee ...

, the tenth tirthankar. Here the first 108 feet elevated temple with all Tirthankaras with Shitalanatha as the principal deity is under construction.

Jain cave

According to Jain belief, Vidisha is one of the first places where the Jain images were worshipped. The earliest of these are two Jain caves of Udayagiri. Only a torso remains of one cave, and this torso is now exhibited in an open-air museum. Cave 20 is the only cave in the Udayagiri Caves complex is dedicated to Jainism. It is on the northwestern edge of the hills. At the entrance is the image of the Jain Tirthankara

Parshvanatha ''Parshvanatha'' (), also known as ''Parshva'' () and ''Parasnath'', was the 23rd of 24 ''Tirthankaras'' (supreme preacher of dharma) of Jainism. He is the only Tirthankara who gained the title of ''Kalīkālkalpataru (Kalpavriksha in this "Kal ...

sitting under a serpent hood. The cave is divided into five rectangular rooms with stones stacked, the total length of that is about deep.

Jain temples

Bada Mandir

Bada Mandir is one of the fourteen Jain temples present in Vidisha. The temple is built in Mughal architecture. The bada mandir consists of a miraculous Jain idol which is considered to be older than the temple.

Bajramath Jain temple

Bajramath Jain temple is situated in Gyaraspur and dates back to the 9th century. This temple enshrines three

garbhagriha A ''garbhagriha'' or ''sannidhanam'' is the ''sanctum sanctorum'', the innermost sanctuary of a Hindu and Jain temples where resides the ''murti'' (idol or icon) of the primary deity of the temple. In Jainism, the main deity is known as the ''M ...

s with the temple is fully decorated with Jain sculptures. The temple was earlier a Brahmical temple dedicate to

Surya Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a m ...

but was transformed to a Jain temple. All three shrines of this temple are now occupied with idols of

tirthankara In Jainism, a ''Tirthankara'' (Sanskrit: '; English: literally a 'ford-maker') is a saviour and spiritual teacher of the ''dharma'' (righteous path). The word ''tirthankara'' signifies the founder of a '' tirtha'', which is a fordable passag ...

Maladevi temple

Maladevi temple dates back to the 9th century. This is a rock-cut temple built in

Pratihara The Gurjara-Pratihara was a dynasty that ruled much of Northern India from the mid-8th to the 11th century. They ruled first at Ujjain and later at Kannauj. The Gurjara-Pratiharas were instrumental in containing Arab armies moving east of the ...

style. The temple was initially a Brahmical temple but later converted to a Jain worship site. The temple is dedicated to

Adinatha Rishabhanatha, also ( sa, ऋषभदेव), Rishabhadeva, or Ikshvaku is the first (Supreme preacher) of Jainism and establisher of Ikshvaku dynasty. He was the first of twenty-four teachers in the present half-cycle of time in Jain ...

. The Maladevi temple is considered one of the best examples of its collection of varied Jain sculptures.

Gadarmal Devi temple

Gadarmal Devi temple dates back to the 9th century. The architecture of this yogini temple is a fusion of

and

Parmara Parmar is a Rajput clan found in Northern and Central India, especially in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Kutch, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and North Maharashtra. See also * Paramara Dynasty * Panwar Dynasty * Pawar P ...

styles. It is built similar to

Teli ka Mandir Teli ka Mandir, also known as Telika Temple, is a Hindu temple located within the Gwalior Fort in Madhya Pradesh, India. Dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Matrikas, it has been variously dated between the early 8th and early 9th century CE. It is an ...

Gwalior fort The Gwalior Fort commonly known as the ''Gwāliiyar Qila'', is a hill fort near Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. The fort has existed at least since the 10th century, and the inscriptions and monuments found within what is now the fort campus ind ...

. This temple houses both Hindu and Jain idols. The temple is made of sandstone with seven small shrines surrounding the main shrine.

Pataria Jain temples

Pataria Jain temples was built in the 9th century in Badoh city. These are a cluster of 25 temples with the main shrine surmounted with

shikhara ''Shikhara'' (IAST: '), a Sanskrit word translating literally to "mountain peak", refers to the rising tower in the Hindu temple architecture of North India, and also often used in Jain temples. A ''shikhara'' over the ''garbhagriha'' chamber ...

s; the other shrines have a flat roof, shikharas, and dome.

Restoration

In 1930,

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...

state stepped up to conserve Maladevi temple. All of the monuments in Vidisha are protected by

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexande ...

Gallery

File:Pataria Jain Temple, Badoh.jpg, Pataria Jain temple File:Bajramath Temple Gyaraspur.jpg, Bajramath Jain temple File:Bajramath Temple N-MP-280 (23).jpg, Carvings of

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...

on wall of Bajramath Jain temple File:Bajramath Temple N-MP-280 (28).jpg, Image of Adinatha inside Bajramath Jain temple File:Gadarmal Temple Badoh.jpg, Gadarmal Devi temple

References

Citations

Sources

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