Digambar Jain Tirth - Bh. Adinath

Dilshad Garden, Delhi

In the capital city of India, New Delhi which is divided in two parts by the river Yamuna named as Delhi (which even existed earlier) and East Delhi which has developed beyond the river Yamuna till Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, lies a well known area of Shahdara, and between it and Tahirpur (a near by colony to Shahdara) lies a big colony known as Dilshad Garden.

Jain families started residing at Dilshad Garden in the year 1950, just three years after India became free. Earlier a major potion of the whole area which even now is spread over a few square kilometers of land was in the name of Shri Raj Bahadur Jain. Till the year 1979 the number of Jain families in Dilshad Garden area was negligible, but soon after Delhi Development Authority (D.D.A) ! started allotting land space for flats in the area, the number of Jain families rose significantly. Till date there are about 300 Digambar Jain families and 50 Shwetambar Jain families residing in Dilshad Garden.

Earlier in the year 1986 in Dilshad Garden, Shri Adinath Digambar Jain Chaityalaya was started buiding up ( It is like fixing a place for the temple and starting a little bit of construction work) at the round-about near the post office that still is there, in the month of Bhadon (the month of September according to the Hindi calendar) on the Panchmi (the fifth day that is) but unfortunately due to some unavoidable circumstances, was halted and was shifted to a local plot with in ten days of starting up. The new plot belonged to the renowned jewelers of Old Delhi, Chandni Chowk area, M/s Shri Prakash Chand Sheel Chand Jain Jewelers. Being kind hearted and religious soul they donated a piece of their land of 180 square meter for building up the New Temple. The tempor! ary temple that is 'Chaityalaya' is now being maintained on a small portion of this land. The work for building up the new temple started on 31st December 1995 by Shri Sheel Chand Jain under the supreme and pious guidance of Jain saint Shri 108 Upadhayay Shri Gupti Sagar Ji Maharaj. The final work of completion is on the verge of ending now and the 'Panch-Kalyanak Mahotsav' have already been scheduled to be held on from February 22nd, 2002 to March 2nd, 2002. The main Deities right now are three in number being Lord Shri Adinath Ji, Lord Shri Neminath Ji and the founder of Jainism Lord Shri Mahavira Swami Ji. All the Deities have been brought from Shri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir, Chandni Chowk and the Jain Temples of Baraut (Uttar Pradesh) and Gandhi Nagar (Delhi) respectively.

For the last 15 years all the regular activities including daily worship, (Pooja ,Prakshaal) religious and cultural programmes and other educational activities are con! tinuously held by the working committee of the temple. Religious tours to various pilgrimages are being organized at short intervals, In the past years highly admired Jain monks Aacharya Shri Vimal Sagar Ji, Shri Vidyanand Maharaj, Shri Dharma Bhooshan Maharaj, Shri Gupti Sagar Ji, and Shri Kaam Kumar Nandi Ji Maharaj has blessed this place with their stay here

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R1991