heritage/sonagiri.jpg · 1200×800Sonagiri, the 'golden hill', rises from the plain in Datia district, its slopes crowded with whitewashed spires. Jains count 103 temples here — about 77 on the hill and 26 in the village below. Tradition holds that since the time of Chandraprabha, the eighth Tirthankara, five and a half crore ascetics have attained liberation on this hill, among them King Nanganang and his followers, which is why it is honoured as a siddhakshetra.
Temple 57, near the summit, is the principal shrine. Its image of Chandraprabha stands about 3.4 metres high; accounts differ, some describing it as eleven feet and seated, others as twelve feet and standing in kayotsarga. Most temples date from the ninth century onwards, though a rock-cut Chandraprabha of the fifth or sixth century survives, and many shrines were repaired or rebuilt in later centuries by merchant families.
Sonagiri is a working pilgrimage rather than a monument. Pilgrims climb barefoot at dawn and move from shrine to shrine; the temples are known by number rather than by name, so directions here sound like arithmetic. A ratha yatra is held after Holi, from Chaitra Pratipada to Rang Panchami, and an annual flag-hoisting draws crowds. Guides point out the Bajani Shila, a stone that rings when struck.
