Rishabhdeo

About

Rishabhdeo, also written Rikhabdeo and known locally as Dhulev, lies about sixty-five kilometres from Udaipur along the Udaipur-Ahmedabad road in southern Rajasthan. The town takes its name from Lord Rishabhanatha, the first Tirthankara of Jainism, whose great Temple here is among the most revered Jain pilgrimage centres in western India.

The Kesariyaji Tirth, often simply called the Main Temple, is honoured by both Digambara and Shvetambara traditions, and a 1966 judgement of the Rajasthan High Court confirmed it as a Shvetambara Jain Temple. The presiding deity is called Kesariaji because of the great offerings of saffron, keshar, brought by pilgrims across the centuries.

The Temple is regarded as one of the four principal religious institutions of Mewar, the kingdom long ruled from Udaipur by the Sisodia Maharanas. A traditional verse by Chatur Singhji Bavji invokes Eklingji, Girirajdhar, Rishabhdev, and Bhujchaar as the four dhams of Mewar, and the Shvetambara aarti by Mulchand sings of Dhuleva as a town made luminous by the lord's presence.

The Main Temple is said to have been raised in the eighth century. Its central image of Rishabhanatha, carved in black stone and seated in padmasana, rises about three and a half feet, set within an ashtadhatu parikar of twenty-three accompanying images. Above rise fifty-two pinnacles, raised in the symbolism of the fifty-two Temples of Nandishwar Dweep, with 1,100 carved pillars and fifty-two devakulikas within.

History

Tradition and inscription both point to deep age here: the Temple is generally dated to the eighth century CE, and a dedication inscription of Samvat 1431 (1374 CE) records a renovation of the garbhagriha and Khela Mandap under the Digambara pontiff Dharmakirti ji. The Temple takes its second name, Dhulev, from Dhuleva, a Bhil chieftain remembered as an early guardian of the shrine, and Bhil devotees still call the deity Kalababa. For centuries the Temple stood among the four principal religious institutions of Mewar, and the Sisodia Maharanas of Udaipur, restored to their throne with Jain support after the fall of Chittor, became devoted patrons; Maharana Fateh Singh presented a jewel-studded angi still used on special occasions.

Significance

Lord Rishabhanatha is honoured here as Kesariyaji, for the great offerings of saffron, keshar, that pilgrims have poured over the image across the centuries until the deity himself seemed to take on its colour. Few pilgrimage places in Rajasthan gather so many devotional streams into one act of worship: Digambara and Svetambara Jains, Hindu castes, and Bhil communities all bring their reverence to the same sanctum.

Architecture

Rajasthani Jain Temple architecture; fifty-two shrines (devakulikas) and pinnacles echoing the Temples of Nandishwar Dweep