heritage/khajuraho-jain-temples.jpg · 1200×800Khajuraho was a Chandela capital, and its Jain patrons employed the same workshops as its Hindu ones. The Parshvanatha temple, largest of the Jain group, was raised about 950–970 CE in the reign of King Dhanga; an inscription of 954 records gifts of gardens by a devotee named Pahila. Its outer walls carry bands of celestial women, couples, musicians and Vaishnava figures — evidence of how freely the two traditions shared a visual language.
The Adinatha temple, of the late eleventh century, keeps only its sanctum and vestibule, but its tower is finely proportioned and its black schist Adinatha names both the donor and the sculptor. The Shantinatha temple is a composite: a structure of 1870 built around a much older shrine, holding a Shantinatha image about 4.3 metres tall whose pedestal inscription is dated Samvat 1085, that is 1027–28 CE.
Nearby stands the ruined Ghantai temple of about 960 CE, named for the bells and chains carved on its pillars. Jain activity here is documented from 954 to 1177, then resumes after 1858 with repairs and reinstalled images. The Shantinatha temple is today the centre of Digambara worship at Khajuraho, with a Jain museum beside it opened in 1984. UNESCO inscribed the Khajuraho monuments in 1986.
