Who Built the Jain Temples of Mount Abu, and When

The Jain temples of Mount Abu were not one project. They were built across five and a half centuries by different patrons, and almost all of the important ones by ministers of the Gujarat court — possible because Abu, under the Paramara feudatories of Chandravati, was then an integral part of Gujarat rather than a separate Rajasthan holding.

Vimala Shah — Vimala Vasahi, 1031 CE

The earliest and most famous shrine was built by Vimala Shah, a minister of the Solanki (Chaulukya) king, and dedicated to Rishabhanatha (Adinatha), the first Tirthankara. The consecration is recorded in V.S. 1088 = 1031 CE. Tradition holds that the goddess Ambika told Vimala in a dream where to dig for the image he first installed; he later set a brass Rishabha as the shrine's mulanayaka and left the earlier sculpture in its cell.

Tejapala — Luna Vasahi, c. 1230–32 CE

Two centuries later the ministers Vastupala and Tejapala built a number of Jain shrines, of which the Lunasimha-vasahi at Abu is the most famous. It was raised by Tejapala for the spiritual welfare of his wife Anupamadevi and their son Lavanyasimha, whose name it carries, and required the special permission of two rulers: his own master, the Solanki emperor Bhima II of Gujarat, and Somasimha, the Paramara Mahamandaleshvara of Abu. It is dedicated to Neminatha, the 22nd Tirthankara, whose image was installed in black basalt. Its rangamandapa ceiling is dated 1232 CE.

Bhima Shah — Pittalhar

The Pittalhar shrine was built by Bhima Shah. Its name comes from pittala, brass, after its great metal Rishabhanatha of roughly 108 maunds. The image now in place was the gift of the ministers Sundara and Gada and was installed in V.S. 1525; its inscription names the craftsman, Sutradhara Deva.

The later shrines

The Chaumukha or Kharatara Vasahi — three-storeyed, built round a four-faced tower — belongs to the mid-fifteenth century; its ceilings are dated c. 1459 CE. The Mahavir Swami temple, dated 1582 CE, is the latest and smallest of the five.

At Achalgarh nearby, the great bronze Adinatha of the Chaumukha shrine was installed by Samghavi Sahasa and cast in V.S. 1566 by Sutradhara Haradasa, son of Sutradhara Arbuda.

A caution worth carrying: the Vimala and Luna Vasahis were both damaged in more than one invasion, and inscriptions record at least two rounds of repair to the Vimala Vasahi before the modern restorations. The patron and the date tell you who commissioned a shrine, not that every stone standing in it today is of that age.

Related: Who built the Dilwara temples at Mount Abu and when · Mount Abu (Arbudachal): The Jain Tirtha and Its Shrines