Cite
MLA
“Shatrunjaya Hill, Palitana.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/places/palitana-shatrunjaya/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Shatrunjaya Hill, Palitana. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/places/palitana-shatrunjaya/
01Where Adinath preached
Jain tradition says Bhagwan Rishabhadeva, the first Tirthankara, came to this hill again and again and preached from its summit, and that his grandson Pundarika, chief of his ganadharas, attained moksha here with a great company of monks. That is why the hill is also called Pundarikagiri and Siddhakshetra, the field of the liberated. Devotees count it holier than any other tirtha, and many vow the navvanu yatra, ninety-nine ascents of the hill, done over weeks in the cool season. The Shatrunjaya Mahatmya, a Sanskrit text of the Jain tradition, tells the hill’s sacred history and the long line of those who rebuilt its shrines.
02Broken and raised again
Jains speak of the uddhars, the restorations of Shatrunjaya, and remember each restorer by name. In the early fourteenth century, when the armies of Alauddin Khalji overran Gujarat, the shrines on the hill were broken; Samara Shah, a merchant of Patan, rebuilt the main temple in 1315 by the Jain account. Two centuries later Karmashah, a merchant of Chittor, won leave from the Sultan of Gujarat and restored the shrine of Adinath in 1530–31, and his temple is the one that stands on the summit now. The hill is laid out in nine tuks, walled enclosures each holding a cluster of temples raised by a family or a sangha, many of them in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
03Climbing before dawn
Pilgrims start in the dark from the foot of the hill at Taleti and reach the summit as the sun comes up, about two hours of steps. Elders who cannot walk are carried up in dolis. Food is not taken on the hill, and everyone comes down before evening, because the hill is held to be the dwelling of the gods by night. The climb is closed for the four months of the rains, the chaturmas, and opens again on Kartik Purnima, when crowds come for the first darshan. In 2014, after Jain monks fasted for it, the Gujarat government stopped the sale of meat and eggs in Palitana town. The temples are cared for by the Seth Anandji Kalyanji Pedhi.
The life of this place
- 1315 CE (Jain account)Samara Shah of Patan rebuilt the main temple after the shrines were broken in the Khalji conquest of Gujarat.
- 1530–31 CEKarmashah of Chittor restored the Adinath temple that stands on the summit today.
- 2014 CEThe sale of meat and eggs was stopped in Palitana after a fast by Jain monks.
Palitana is about 50 km south-west of Bhavnagar. Start the climb before 5 a.m.; the hill is closed in the monsoon months and must be left before evening.
