Kachner Jain Temple

Kachner Jain Temple
Parshvanatha idol at Kachner Jain Temple
Religion
Affiliation	Jainism
Sect	Digambara
Deity	Parshvanatha
Location
Location	Kachner, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Kachner Jain Temple is a Jain temple dedicated to Parshvanatha, the 23rd Tirthankara of Jainism, at Kachner in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, Maharashtra, India.

History

Kachner was an established Jain centre in the medieval Deccan region. P. B. Deshpande's archaeological chronology records a Jain temple at Kachner in the 13th century CE, placing it among the medieval Jain monuments of the Deccan. Viraj Shah identifies Kachner among the important Jain centres of the Marathwada region during the pre-14th-century period. She notes that Kachner and other Jain centres in the region continued to retain their significance until the 18th century.

Shah's survey also records Kachner as the location of a Parshvanatha temple in the 13th-century context of Jain monuments in the region. The available archaeological sources do not establish that the present surviving temple structure is identical to the medieval temple recorded in these sources. Consequently, the 13th-century date is best understood as evidence for a Jain temple at Kachner during the medieval period rather than as a definitive construction date for the present building.

Temple

The temple is dedicated to Parshvanatha. A study of Jainism in the Marathwada region describes the principal image as Parshvanatha seated in padmasana beneath a seven-hooded serpent canopy identified with Dharanendra, the serpent associated with Parshvanatha in Jain iconography. The combination of the Parshvanatha image and the historical references to a Jain temple at Kachner demonstrates the site's importance as a Jain religious centre, although the sources presently available do not provide a detailed architectural description or securely date the existing temple building.

Religious significance

Kachner forms part of the network of medieval Jain centres in Marathwada. Shah identifies it alongside Aurangabad, Daulatabad, Ter, Jintur and Kandhar as an important Jain centre of the region before the 14th century. These centres continued to have Jain significance in subsequent centuries.

Chintamani Parshvanatha

The principal image is known as Chintamani Parshvanatha. The image's iconography, with Parshvanatha seated beneath a seven-hooded serpent canopy, is consistent with the conventional Jain representation of the Tirthankara. Accounts concerning the discovery and miraculous properties of the image are preserved in modern Jain religious literature. These accounts form part of the religious tradition of the shrine and should not be treated as archaeological evidence for the date of the image or temple.

See also

• Nemgiri
• Mangi-Tungi
• Gajpanth

References

Sources

• Deshpande, P. B. (1985). Kevala-Bodhi: Buddhist and Jaina History of the Deccan. Vol. 2. Pune: Deccan College. p. 95.
• Shah, Viraj (2008). Jaina Rock-cut Caves in Western India. Vol. 1. New Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan. pp. 323, 328.
• Barvalia, Gunvant (2013). Gunvant Barvalia (ed.). Development and Impact of Jainism in India & Abroad. Mumbai: Arham Spiritual Centre's SKPG Jain Philosophical & Literary Research Centre. p. 101.