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Girnar, Taranga, Satrunjaya, Mount Abu, Ranakpur, Kumbharia - many of them located on mountain tops, with commanding view of the valleys below them - have not only prominent Jain temples established there for centuries, but are also centres of great pilgrimages where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gather every year.
Mount Abu, the site of Dilwara Jain temples, is one of the most sacred hills of the Jains. An inscription of 1370 A.D. suggests that Mahāvira visited the Abu region during his travels as a monk. There are also references to the region - known as Arbuda or Arbudachala – in Rgveda and the Skanda Puräna, with numerous legends and myths associated with it.
Mount Abu is part of the Aravalli mountain range and is detached from it by a narrow valley. The village of Dilwara in Mount Abu has many Jain and Hindu temples and has been known for centuries as Devakulapätaka or Devalapātaka - 'a region of temples'.
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Pata with eight Auspicious Symbols, aptamangala, Gujarat, c. 1950-75. The symbols, auspicious frivatsa mark, water-filled pot, auspicious seat, a pair of fish, mirror, powder box and auspicious whorl.
Tirthankara Adinditha, in silver clothes and bedecked with flowers, the Vimalavasthi bemple.
