Ranakpur
Encyclopedia
Ranakpur is a village located in Desuri
tehsil near Sadri
town in the Pali district
of Rajasthan
in western India
. It is located between Jodhpur
and Udaipur
, in a valley on the western side of the Aravalli Range
. Ranakpur is easily accessed by road from Udaipur.
Ranakpur is widely known for its marble Jain temple, and for a much older Sun Temple which lies opposite the former.
.
s and cupola
s rises majestically from the slope of a hill. Over 1444 marble pillars, carved in exquisite detail, support the temple. The pillars are all differently carved and no two pillars are the same. It is also said that it is impossible to count the pillars. Also all the statue
s face one or the other statue. There is one beautiful carving made out of a single marble rock where there 108 heads of snake
s and numerous tails. One cannot find the end of the tails. The image faces all four cardinal directions. In the axis of the main entrance, on the western side, is the largest image.
The temple is designed as chaumukha
—with four faces. The construction of the temple and quadrupled image symbolize the Tirthankara's conquest of the four cardinal directions and hence the cosmos
.
, is said to have commissioned it, under the patronage of Rana Kumbha, then ruler of Mewar
. The architect who oversaw the project is said to have been named Deepaka. There is an inscription on a pillar near the main shrine stating that in 1439 Deepaka, an architect, constructed the temple at the direction of Dharanka, a devoted Jain.
Desuri
Desuri is a village in Pali district, which is tehsil headquarters also. Desuri is located near Aravalli range. This tehsil includes two municipalities Sadri and Rani...
tehsil near Sadri
Sadri
Sadri is a city and a municipality in Pali district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The city was called gate of Mewar to Marwar. Sadri is one of main worship place for Jain community. Sadri is landing place for Ranakpur Temple and Shri Parshuram Mahadev Mandir. Sadri Gram Panchayat converted...
town in the Pali district
Pali district
Pali District is a district of the state of Rajasthan in western India. The town of Pali is the district headquarters.-History:...
of Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
in western India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. It is located between Jodhpur
Jodhpur
Jodhpur , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located west from the state capital, Jaipur and from the city of Ajmer. It was formerly the seat of a princely state of the same name, the capital of the kingdom known as Marwar...
and Udaipur
Udaipur, Rajasthan
Udaipur , also known as the City of Lakes, is a city, a Municipal Council and the administrative headquarters of the Udaipur district in the state of Rajasthan in western India. It is located southwest of the state capital, Jaipur, west of Kota, and northeast from Ahmedabad...
, in a valley on the western side of the Aravalli Range
Aravalli Range
The Aravalli Range literally meaning 'line of peaks', is a range of mountains in western India and eastern Pakistan running approximately 800 km from northeast to southwest across states of Rajasthan, Haryana, and Gujarat and Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh...
. Ranakpur is easily accessed by road from Udaipur.
Ranakpur is widely known for its marble Jain temple, and for a much older Sun Temple which lies opposite the former.
Jain temple
The renowned Jain temple at Ranakpur is dedicated to AdinathaRishabha (Jain tirthankar)
In Jainism, R̥ṣabha or Ādinātha , also known as the "Lord of Kesariya") was the first of the 24 Tīrthaṅkaras. According to Jain beliefs, R̥ṣabha founded the Ikshvaku dynasty and was the first Tīrthaṅkara of the present age...
.
Architecture
Light colored marble has been used for the construction of this grand temple which occupies an area of approximately 60 x 62 meters. The temple, with its distinctive domes, shikhara, turretTurret
In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification...
s and cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
s rises majestically from the slope of a hill. Over 1444 marble pillars, carved in exquisite detail, support the temple. The pillars are all differently carved and no two pillars are the same. It is also said that it is impossible to count the pillars. Also all the statue
Statue
A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...
s face one or the other statue. There is one beautiful carving made out of a single marble rock where there 108 heads of snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
s and numerous tails. One cannot find the end of the tails. The image faces all four cardinal directions. In the axis of the main entrance, on the western side, is the largest image.
The temple is designed as chaumukha
Chaumukha
Chaumukha is a coastal village in Baliapal block of Baleswar district of the Indian state of Orissa.Chaumukha and Dagara are the two coastal villages in Baliapal Block broadly used to mention about the closer seaside and beach...
—with four faces. The construction of the temple and quadrupled image symbolize the Tirthankara's conquest of the four cardinal directions and hence the cosmos
Cosmos
In the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...
.
History
The dating of this temple is controversial but it is largely considered to be anywhere between the late 14th to mid-15th centuries. Inspired by a dream of a celestial vehicle, Dhanna Shah, a PorwadPorwad
·Porvad , also called Porwad / Porwal, are an ancient Jain community that originated from southern Rajasthan. In Sanskrit inscriptions it is called Pragvata ....
, is said to have commissioned it, under the patronage of Rana Kumbha, then ruler of Mewar
Mewar
Mewar is a region of south-central Rajasthan state in western India. It includes the present-day districts of Pratapgarh, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Udaipur, Dungarpur, Banswara and some of the part of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The region was for centuries a Rajput kingdom that later...
. The architect who oversaw the project is said to have been named Deepaka. There is an inscription on a pillar near the main shrine stating that in 1439 Deepaka, an architect, constructed the temple at the direction of Dharanka, a devoted Jain.