Jal Mandir - Pawapuri

Was recently in Patna for a few days to attend a school reunion of old boys of St.Xaviers 1965 batch. After the reunion festivities took a few days off to visit places of historical importance like Pawapuri, Nalanda, Bodh Gaya & Gaya.Here I am posting pictures clicked at Pawapuri Jal Mandir.
Pawapuri in the state of Bihar is a holy site for Jains, located 38 kilometers from Rajgir in Nalanda district and 90 kilometers from Patna, the capital of Bihar.Around 500 BC, Lord Mahavira, the last of the 24 Tirthankaras and one of the founders of Jainism, breathed his last here. This is the place where Lord Mahavira achieved Moksha or Nirvana (Salvation from the endless cycle of life and death). He was cremated at Pawapuri, also known as Apapuri ("the sinless town"). There was a great rush to collect his ashes, with the result that so much soil was removed from the place of his cremation that a pond was created.Now, an exquisite marble temple in the middle of a lotus pond, the Jalmandir, stands magnificently on a rectangular island.Jal mandir as the name suggests is a temple in the middle of a lake blooming with lotuses. The main deity of the beautiful temple is a very old “Charan Paduka” of Lord Mahavira.Jal Mandir is built in the shape of “Vimana” and there is a stone bridge about 600 feet in length across it from the bank to the temple.

Views of Jal Mandir above & below

The beautiful chequered marble walkway

A marble fountain near the pond

The Lotus pond & the stone bridge

Devotees praying & making offerings

Charan Paduka of Mahavira

A sugar cane juice vendor

A Tum Tum which is the standard mode of transportation in Pawapuri

A chaat vendor

A fruit seller