Shantinath Temple

Shantinath Mandir is a Jain temple built first time in 1027 and renovated twice afterwards in 1870 and 1996. This is a beautiful temple is among the Jain temple clusters in eastern group of temples in Khajuraho. Though the main deity of this temple is Jain Tirthankara Shantinath, but it includes 18 shrines of various Jain images. Although the present day temple structure features modern renovations, the nucleus of the temple is quite old. It features an oblong enclosure of shrine cells depicting the older sculptures. The present structure is like all other nineteenth century Jain temples, a quadrangle structure with a courtyard in the middle, a gallery displaying images and photographs of Jain Tirthankara. The older stone structure and elements can be seen clearly embedded in the nineteenth century masonry structure. The sanctum of the temple has a 4.3 meter high marble statue of Shantinath. There are several other statues some old, some new, decorated in artistic style around the main idol. Central shrine consists of the ancient Shantinath image which is flanked by smaller images of twenty four Tirthankara. The doorway includes the conventional images of goddess Ganga and Yamuna, guardian deity Kshetrapal. Some inscriptions say that most of the images kept here have been brought from ruined temples of different parts of the state and the country.