Shri Taranga Tirth rises among the rocky Taranga hills near Kheralu in Mehsana district. Its moolnayak, Shri Ajitnath Bhagwan, the second Tirthankar, is a white marble idol in padmasan about 2.75 m tall. The great temple was built in the 12th century by the Solanki king Kumarpal on the advice of his guru Acharya Hemachandracharya, and stands about 142 feet high, one of the finest examples of the Maru-Gurjara style.
Kumarpal and Hemachandracharya
King Kumarpal, who ruled Gujarat from Patan in the 12th century, embraced the Jain way of life under Acharya Hemachandracharya and built many temples. Taranga's Ajitnath temple, completed around 1161 CE (Vikram Samvat 1221), is the greatest of them to survive.
Later the ministers Vastupal and Tejpal installed idols of Adinath and Neminath here, in VS 1284. The original moolnayak was lost and the present idol was installed in 1422 CE (VS 1479), and the tirth was consecrated again in VS 1642.
The temple
The temple stands on a broad plinth, about 142 feet high, with a vast assembly hall. Its shikhar begins with clusters of miniature towers and rises into a soaring spire, and every surface is carved with figures, gods and honeycomb patterns; its shikhar and mandap roof are counted among the most intricate in the Maru-Gurjara style.
Around it, within the compound, stand further Shwetambar temples, and the white Digambar temples sit in the lap of the hill.
The sacred hilltops
Paths lead from the temple to three hilltop shrines. Koti Shila, about a kilometre south, is honoured in Digambar tradition as the place where crores of munis, among them Varadatta and Sagardatta, attained nirvana. Siddha Shila lies to the north-west, and Punya-Pap ni Bari (Moksha Bari) to the east, with ancient charan paduka.
Idols of Neminath and Mallinath on the hillocks date from VS 1292, and a small shrine on the highest peak holds Mallinath Bhagwan. On the hillside a great seated idol looks out over rows of small white shrines, and below the temple a lake reflects its shikhar.
Visiting Taranga
Pilgrims come in the largest numbers on Kartak Poonam and Chaitri Poonam. Both Shwetambar and Digambar dharamshalas and bhojanshalas serve yatris, at the hill and near Taranga Hill station.
Those with time can also see the ancient Buddhist caves of the 4th–5th century and the shrine of Taran Mata, a little north of the hills.