Shatrunjaya Jain Temples

Shatrunjaya hill above Palitana holds one of the largest concentrations of temples on earth, with more than 900 marble shrines built across roughly a millennium and clustered into nine walled enclosures called tuks, each historically endowed by different Jain merchant patrons or communities. Jain doctrine holds that temples should be periodically rebuilt or renewed rather than merely conserved, which accounts for the layered chronology visible across the site, ranging from 11th-century foundations to temples rebuilt as recently as the 19th and 20th centuries. Pilgrims traditionally ascend the more than 3,000 stone steps barefoot before sunrise, a physical act of devotion considered integral to the pilgrimage rather than incidental to it, since no overnight stay is permitted on the sacred hill itself. Dedicated principally to Adinatha, the first Tirthankara, the site is regarded by Shvetambara Jains as one of their most sacred pilgrimage destinations, comparable in stature to Girnar nearby.