Achalagadh

 Achalagadh, group of Jaina temples perched on a north-eastern ridge of Mount Abu.

To behold the Jaina temples of Achalagadh – seven kilometres north-east of Dilwara, but still on Mount Abu – is an absorbing sight. Pilgrims who take advantage of taking a room in one of the two dharmashalas should not miss to greet the rising sun from the upper storey of the renowned Chaumukha shrine that has within its topmost sanctum four big Jina statues, three of Adinatha and one of Shantinatha.

In the Dilwara temples, it is the artistically and minutely wrought white marble that demands our attention and admiration; the Achalagadh shrines, in contrast, abound in works of art cast in metal.

These statues range from the beautiful Jina images occupying the central sanctums to a variety of small-scale figures represent- ing, in the shrine dedicated to Kunthunatha, a samavasarana: a mythical assembly arena due to be build by the gods whenever a Tirthankara is about to deliver his first sermon.

Some of the bronzes are thought to be fairly old. Muni Jayantavijaya counted 173 Jina images in the Kunthunatha temple.*

Frequent buses run between Mount Abu town and Achalagadh.

Another samarasarana, made of metal and thought to be about four hundred years old, is found in the Neminatha temple it the seaport town of Ghogha 21 km from Bhavnagar in Gujarat.