In Jainism, Mahavir Jayanti, also known as Mahavir Janma Kalyanak, is the most important religious holiday. It celebrates the birth of Mahavira, the last Tirthankara. On the Gregorian calendar, the holiday occurs either in March or April.
He was born on the thirteenth day of the rising moon of Chaitra. The chronology accepted by all Jains places Mahavir's birth in 599 BCE.
Local statues of Mahavira are given a ceremonial bath called the abhisheka. During the day, many Jains engage in some sort of charitable act in the name of Mahavira while others travel to temples to meditate and offer prayers. Lectures are typically held in temples to preach the path of virtue as defined by Jain doctrine. Donations are collected in order to promote charitable missions like saving cows from slaughter or helping to feed poor people. Ancient Jain temples across India typically see an extremely high volume of practitioners come to pay their respects and join in the celebrations.
Shri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir is the oldest and best-known Jain temple in Delhi, India. It is directly across from the Red Fort in the historical Chandni Chowk area.
It is known for an avian veterinary hospital in a second building behind the main temple. It is known as the Jain Birds Hospital.
Located just opposite the massive Red Fort at the intersection of Netaji Subhas Marg and Chandni Chowk, Digambar Jain Temple is the oldest temple of the Jain religion in the capital, originally built in 1656. An impressive red sandstone temple today (the temple has undergone many alterations and additions in the past and was enlarged in the early 19th century), Shri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir is popularly known as Lal Mandir "Red Temple".
Modern Delhi was founded by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1628--1658) who built what is commonly known as the old city or old Delhi, surrounded by a wall, with the main street Chandni Chowk in front of the Red Fort, the imperial residence.
Jahangir invited several Jain fianciers to come and settle in the city and granted them some land south of the Chandani Chauk around Dariba Gali. He also permitted them to build a temporary structure to house a Jain temple. The Jain community acquired three marble idols installed by Jivaraj Papriwal under the supervision of Bhattaraka Jinachandra in Samvat 1548 (1491 AD) for the temple. The main idol is that of Tirthankara Parshva.
It is said that the deities in temple were originally kept in a tent belonging to a Jain officer of the Mughal army.
During the Mughal period, the construction of a sikhara for a temple was not permitted. This temple did not have a formal sikhara until after India's independence when the temple was extensively rebuilt.
In 1800-1807, Raja Harsukh Rai, the imperial treasurer obtained imperial permission to build a temple with a sikhara in the Jain neighborhood of Dharamapura, just south of Chandani Chauk. Thus temple, known for fine carvings, is now known as the Naya Mandir "New Temple".
The Gauri Shankar temple next to the Lal Mandir, was founded about a century later in 1761 by Appa Gangadhara, a Maratha Brahman in the service of the Scindia when Delhi was under their influence. It also has been significantly rebuilt in the past few decades.
There is also a bookstore in the complex where a wide range of literatures on Jainism is available, apart from unique curios and souvenirs related to the religion. Visitors should take off their shoes and all other leather goods and hand it to the concerned person before entering the temple complex.
Source: Wikipedia
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