page_title: Jainism
section_title: Pilgrimages
hierarchical_section_title: Jainism / Art and architecture / Pilgrimages
caption_attribution_description: English: Madhuban Shikharji, Dist Giridih
context_page_description: Jainism, traditionally known as Jain Dharma, is an ancient Indian religion. Its religious texts Paramagama Samayasara and Agama Tattvartha Sutra describe the process of achieving liberation from parallelist and interactive lenses respectively. Jain dharma traces its spiritual ideas and history through a succession of twenty-four leaders or tirthankaras, with the first being Rishabhanatha or also known as Adinath bhagwan, who according to Jain tradition lived millions of years ago, the twenty-third tirthankara Parshvanatha in 900 BCE, and the twenty-fourth tirthankara the Mahāvīra around 500 BCE. Jains believe that Jainism is an eternal dharma with the tirthankaras guiding every cycle of the Jain cosmology.
  The main religious premises of the Jain dharma are ahiṃsā, anekāntavāda, aparigraha and asceticism. Devout Jains take five main vows: ahiṃsā, satya, asteya, brahmacharya, and aparigraha. These principles have affected Jain culture in many ways, such as leading to a predominantly vegetarian lifestyle. Parasparopagraho Jīvānām is its motto and the Ṇamōkāra mantra is its most common and basic prayer.
context_section_description: Jain Tirtha (pilgrim) sites are divided into the following categories:
  Siddhakshetra – Site believed to be of the moksha of an arihant (kevalin) or tirthankara, such as: Ashtapada, Shikharji, Girnar, Pawapuri, Palitana, Mangi-Tungi, and Champapuri (capital of Anga).
  Atishayakshetra – Locations where divine events are believed to have occurred, such as: Mahavirji, Rishabhdeo, Kundalpur, Tijara, and Aharji.
  Puranakshetra –  Places associated with the lives of great men, such as: Ayodhya, Vidisha, Hastinapur, and Rajgir.
  Gyanakshetra –  Places associated with famous acharyas, or centers of learning, such as Shravanabelagola.
  Outside contemporary India, Jain communities built temples in locations such as Nagarparkar, Sindh (Pakistan). However, according to a UNESCO tentative world heritage site application, Nagarparkar was not a "major religious centre or a place of pilgrimage" for Jainism, but it was once an important cultural landscape before "the last remaining Jain community left the area in 1947 at Partition".
caption: Shikharji
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