Tirtha Atlas

The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.

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High medieval · Jain · India

Palitana Temples, Shatrunjaya Hill

પાલીતાણાના જૈન મંદિરો

Palitana, Gujarat · 21.4839°, 71.7925°

Adinatha (Rishabhanatha)Chaulukya (Solanki)Maru-Gurjara
Sacred since
800 BCE
Eternal tirtha in Jain cosmology
Standing structure
11th–12th-c. origins; standing temples largely 16th-c.+ rebuilds
Chaulukya (Solanki)

History & significance

The holiest mountain of Svetambara Jainism: some 863 marble temples cascade over Shatrunjaya's twin summits, reached by ~3,750 steps. Every Jain aspires to climb it once; no one — not even priests — may sleep on the sacred hill, and Palitana town below was declared the world's first legally vegetarian city.

Sthala katha — the traditional account

What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.

On this deathless hill Adinatha, the first Tirthankara, delivered his first sermon, and his chief disciple Pundarika attained liberation with crores of sages — whence its name Pundarikgiri; the six-monthly '99 yatra' repeats the climb ninety-nine times in his honour.

Reaching there

Bhavnagar airport ~55 km; dolis available for the climb; strict rules (no food, leather on hill).

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Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-26 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Chaulukya (Solanki)