Made of Ghee! Bhandasar Jain Temple, Bikaner: Colourful, charming!

This Jain temple we visited in Bikaner had extremely beautiful art works. Before I show you rest of the photos of the temple, take a moment to appreciate our group photo shown below.

Above photo was clicked using GoPro but the trick was suggested by the temple priest, who was very tech savvy. He suggested that phone can be kept at the centre of the circular design made by kadapa stones, located exactly below the centre of the dome and asked us to stand at a specific point on the circumference. Check the preparatory photos below.


That's Siddhartha Joshi's camera. Waiting for that pic to see the light of the day.

With that done, let us take a look at other paintings and art work inside the temple. Lots of yellow stone carvings and super vibrant paintings on every available space keeps you mesmerized as you take a walk inside the temple complex, which is pretty small. Not a single square inch is spared. Every corner, every pillar, every wall and every window has something or the other painted on it.

 

The tech savvy priest and the exterior view of the temple. The external view doesn't give any clue about the rich art work inside. 

The history: This Jain temple was reportedly constructed by a wealthy merchant, named Bhandasa Oswal, in 15th century. As the merchant had commissioned various buildings, villagers accused him of wasting precious water on buildings and other such things, while the civilians faced acute water shortage. To overcome the criticism, the merchant decided to build a temple without using water. He opted to use ghee instead to mix the mortar with and hold the foundation strong. About 40000 kgs of ghee were reportedly used. In peak summer, it is believed that some ghee seems through the floor.

The Bhandasar Jain temple is dedicated to the fifth Thirthankara of the Jains-Sumitnath.

No leather items are allowed inside the temple, including belts and purses etc. Plan your visit accordingly. The temple also has specific opening hours- check before you visit. While we visited some painting rework was going on, so it was open for little longer.

 View of Bikaner town from top of Bhandasar Jain temple tower.

Bhandasar temple is located behind another temple- Laxmi Nath temple, where photography is not allowed. Didn't find anything unique about the Laxmi Nath temple anyway, but locals visit the Laxmi Nath temple much more than they visit Jain temple. A Goshala behind the compound of these temples was worth a sight.

Our visit was organized by the good folks of Narendra Bhawan.

Also see: Karni Mata's Rat temple, Bikaner * Basadi betta, Tumkur * Lodhruva Jain temple, Jaisalmer * Thousand Pillar Basadi, Moodubidiri *  Kiradu temple, Rajasthan *  Shravana Belagola *