A tirth is a ford: a place where a person can cross from ordinary life towards liberation, and the word is used for the places made holy by the lives of the Tirthankaras and by centuries of devotion. These guides take eight of the best known. Each one gives the tradition of the place, what scholars agree on about its history, how to reach it (the nearest airport and railway station only) and the etiquette that visitors are asked to keep.
The eight tirths
- Palitana: Shatrunjaya, the hill of temples in Gujarat. A Shvetambara tirth with several hundred shrines, centred on Adinatha.
- Sammed Shikharji in Jharkhand. The hill where twenty Tirthankaras are held to have been liberated.
- Girnar in Gujarat. The hill of Neminatha at Junagadh.
- Ranakpur in Rajasthan. The four-faced Adinatha temple of 1439, with its carved pillars.
- Shravanabelagola in Karnataka. The statue of Bahubali, dated 981 CE, and the two hills.
- Pavapuri in Bihar. The water temple at the place of Mahavira’s liberation.
- Dilwara in Rajasthan. The marble temples of Mount Abu, built in 1031 and 1230.
- Mahavirji in Rajasthan. A Digambara tirth with the image of Mahavira said to have been unearthed.
How these guides are written
We separate three things. Tradition is what the community holds about a place, such as who was liberated where, and it is stated as tradition. Scholarship is what historians and archaeologists agree on, mostly the dates of buildings and the names of patrons, and we keep to what is widely agreed. Practice is what visitors are asked to do, and it is drawn from the long-standing customs that the trusts keep. Where the sources disagree on a figure, such as the number of steps or temples, we say that the figure varies.
We leave out opening times, entry fees, permit rules and prices, which are set by the managing trusts and change often. For those, ask the trust or the dharamshala before you go. We also give only the nearest airport and railway station, since road routes and timetables change.
A few things that hold for every tirth
Dress modestly, leave leather items outside, and keep silent or speak softly. Take your rubbish away with you. Eat only where the trust provides food, and expect meals cooked within the rules explained in the Jain recipes: no root vegetables, no honey and nothing after sunset. Many pilgrims keep a vow of fasting or ayambil while on pilgrimage. The climbs at Palitana, Girnar and Sammed Shikharji are long and tiring, so anyone with a heart, joint or breathing condition should ask a doctor first.
The Tirthankaras whose places these are have pages of their own in the Tirthankara series, and the Jain history page places the great temples in their period.