Girnar Jain Temples

Mount Girnar rises above Junagadh in Saurashtra, and on its shoulder stands a group of fourteen Jain temples reached by a stair of roughly three and a half to four thousand steps from the Bhavnath taleti below. The principal shrine is dedicated to Neminatha, the twenty-second Tirthankara, whose renunciation, enlightenment and liberation are all held to have taken place on this hill, which is why Girnar counts among the handful of principal Jain tirthas alongside Shikharji, Pawapuri, Palitana and Dilwara. Around the main temple stand walled enclosures called tunks, each endowed by a different merchant family and named for its patron, among them Vastupala, Samprati Raja, Merakvasi, Kumarapala and Mallavadi. Almost all belong to the Svetambara sect, with one or two Digambara temples, and the hill itself is held sacred by both.