Bijapur

Pārśvanātha Digambara Jaina Temple

The Pārśvanātha Digambara Jaina Temple is an example of the formal and fully-developed hall temple type. The present sacred edifice at Bijapur is a modern reconstruction of a temple destroyed during the Muslim assaults on the area. Before the destruction of the former temple, the main icon was allegedly buried in the ground and a hole in the temple courtyard is still shown to visitors today as the entrance to the subterranean cave, in which the sacred sculpture was hidden. The original image has been recovered, but has not been enshrined in the central temple structure. It is kept in the porch of a subsidiary shrine dedicated to Pārśvanātha.