Taranga (Jain Temple)

"Taranga (Taranga Tirtha)" is a Shvetambar Jain temple and pilgrimage center, in Mehsana district, Gujarat, India. It was constructed in 1121 by the Solanki dynasty king Kumarpal, advised by his teacher Acharya Hemachandra. A 2.75 m marble statue of Adinatha is the central idol. The compound consists of 14 temples in all, five of which are from the Digambar sect.

Mulnayak: Nearly 2.75 m high, white colored idol of Bhagawan Ajitnath.

History

Digambar Jains settled on this isolated hill with its three rocky peaks. Taranaga is a "siddh kshetra". It is said that 35,000,000 muni including Vardutt and Sagardutt attained nirvana from this place. The two hillocks named Kotishila and Sidhhshila have idols of Bhagwan Neminath and Bhagwan Mallinath of Vikram 1292. There are 14 Digambar Jain temples in the foothills. Digamabar jain dharamshala is at the foothills.

At some time in the twelfth century, Kumarpal, the Solanki king residing at Patan, who was himself a Svetambar Jaina, selected this site for the erection of an exceptionally beautiful temple in honor of Ajitnath. Under the inspiration and instructions of Kalikalasarvajna Acharyashri Hemchandracharya, this temple was built in the year 1200 of the Vikram era. Of the 108 names of Siddhachal, one name is ‘Tarangir’. For this reason, Taranga is regarded as a peak of Siddhachal. In the center of the main vast square of the length of 230 ft and the breadth 230 ft (70 m square), this temple is 50 ft long, 100 ft broad and 142 ft high (15 m by 30 m by 43 m). It has a perimeter of 639 ft (195 m). The 275 m (902 ft) high wooden summit of this temple is beautifully carved. It has seven domes. On the right hand side of the temple, there are foot-idols of Bhagawan Ajitnath and of the 20 wondering Bhagawan and on the left hand side, there are a temple of Gaumukhji, the Samavasaran (the open lecture-hall), and the Jambudvipa painting. On the outer platform of the main temple, there are idols of Padmavatidevi and Kumarpal Maharaja.

Some years earlier he had a temple built to Adinath on Mount Shetrunjay near Palitana. Built of light sandstone, the Taranga temple measures 45 meters in length by 30.4 meters in width and reaches up to a majestic height of 30.6 meters (148 ft by 100 ft by 100 ft). In its plan and design it resembles the Neminath temple on Mount Girnar and the above mentioned Adinath temple on Shetrunjay. The temple on Mount Girnar is lower in height and less ornate, and the Shetrunjay Adinath temple has lost some of its original features in the process of restoring damage caused by Muslim raiders. During the last major renovation works the roofs and the stone carvings on the outer walls were cleared of thick layers of white paint, a praiseworthy undertaking

On the highest elevation of the three-peaked hill there stands a so-called Tonk, a small building in the style of a Muslim grave. Built by Digambar, it houses a marble statue of the nineteenth Tirthankara Mallinathji