Terms and conditions of use
Jain pilgrimage site of Satrunjaya
(19th century)
- Medium
- opaque watercolour and gold on cloth
- Measurements
- 164.5 × 118.2 cm (image and sheet) 165.0 × 118.5 cm (stretcher)
- Place/s of Execution
- (Rajasthan / Gujarat), India
- Accession Number
- 2011.320
- Department
- Asian Art
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of John McCarthy through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2011
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Gordon Darling Foundation - Gallery location
- Not on display
- Physical description
- The painting depicts a map of one of the main Jain pilgrimage sites, Mount Satrunjaya at Palitana in Gujarat. The site is built over two ridges, with the main temple dedicated to Adinatha built on the left ridge and nine Jain temples built by merchants on the right ridge. The sites of Jain pilgrimage were associated with the death of a Jina (one of the Jain saints) and Satrunjaya is associated with the death of Pundarika, a pupil of the Jina Risabhanatha. The site overall contains sixty five temples, three hundred small shrines and over four thousand images. It attracts thousands of Jain pilgrims every year from both the monastic and lay communities, who travel to these sites in order to gain merit. For those who are unable to go on a pilgrimage, large painted aerial views of pilgrimage sites, like this example, are placed in temples on special occasions and provide a surrogate pilgrimage experience through which the devotee gains equal merit to that obtained by actual pilgrimage. The painting accurately records the Satrunjaya complex, and as it does not show the ‘new’ temple between the two ridges which was built ion 1825, it can be dated before then. Pilgrims are shown arriving at the site in the foreground, and then winding their way through the rocky landscape towards the many shrines and temples, each enclosing a golden Jina statue. In the courtyard of the main temple a group of dancers and musicians perform before the main image.