Gajpanth (also spelled ''Gajpantha'') is a Digambar
Jain pilgrimage site (''Siddha-kshetra'') located in Mhasrul village, in the
Nashik district of the Indian state of
Maharashtra
Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...
.
It is managed and maintained by Registered Trust No. A-193/NSK.
Geography
The pilgrimage is located in the Indian state of
Maharashtra
Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...
. It is from the Nashik Road Railway station and from
Nashik City, and is situated on the steep slopes of a hill. The pilgrimage site is accessible via a staircase built in black stone, which leads directly to the temple.
The hill has 450 steps, three caves (known as ''chamar leni''), and several temples belonging to the
Digambara
''Digambara'' (; "sky-clad") is one of the two major Jain schools and branches, schools of Jainism, the other being ''Śvetāmbara'' (white-clad). The Sanskrit word ''Digambara'' means "sky-clad", referring to their traditional monastic pract ...
sect of the
Jains. There is also a sculpture depicting
samavasarana (divine preaching hall of
tirthankara
In Jainism, a ''Tirthankara'' (; ) is a saviour and supreme preacher of the ''Dharma (Jainism), dharma'' (righteous path). The word ''tirthankara'' signifies the founder of a ''Tirtha (Jainism), tirtha'', a fordable passage across ''Saṃsā ...
) on the hills of Gajpanth.
History
Gajpanth is said to be the salvation place of seven ''
Balabhadra'' (heroes) of the Jain Universal history, known as Vijay, Achal, Sudharma, Suprabh, Nandi, Nandimitra and Sudarshan. It is believed that the saints took eight
crore
Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...
s (80 million) of Yadav kings with them from this location to salvation,
and that many
Jain monks (or sadhus) attained
moksha from this hill.
See also
*
Mangi-Tungi
*
Ramtek Jain temple
References
{{Jainism topics
Jain pilgrimage sites
Jain temples in Maharashtra
Tourist attractions in Nashik district