Hastinapur: Ancient Capital and Jain Tirtha

The town of Hastinapur in the Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh, set on the ancient course of the Ganga, is famous in Indian tradition as the great capital of the Kauravas in the Mahabharata, but for the Jain community it is a tirtha of profound importance in its own right. Hastinapur is revered as the birthplace of three Tirthankaras, Shantinatha the sixteenth, Kunthunatha the seventeenth, and Aranatha the eighteenth, and it is honoured as the site of one of the most significant episodes in the life of Adinatha, the first Tirthankara.

According to Jain tradition, after Adinatha renounced the world and undertook a long fast in his practice of asceticism, it was at Hastinapur that he finally broke his fast, receiving sugarcane juice from a prince named Shreyans, who understood how to properly offer alms to an ascetic. This event, the first correct giving of alms to a mendicant in the present age, is commemorated by Jains in the festival of Akshaya Tritiya, when many devotees who undertake the long varshi tap fast break it in remembrance of Adinatha's own breaking of his fast. Hastinapur is thus intimately linked to the origins of the practice of dana, or religious giving, in Jainism.

The concentration of three Tirthankara birthplaces together with the Adinatha episode makes Hastinapur a major kalyanaka kshetra, and the town has developed into one of the most important Jain pilgrimage centres of northern India. Over recent generations it has been greatly developed by the community, and it now boasts a striking array of temples and religious monuments constructed by both the Digambara and Shvetambara traditions.

Among the notable structures are grand temples dedicated to the Tirthankaras associated with the site, and remarkable modern devotional complexes designed to represent Jain cosmology and the life events of the Tirthankaras in visual and architectural form. These include large models of the Jain conception of the universe and of significant scriptural scenes, which serve both as objects of devotion and as places of instruction for pilgrims about the structure of the cosmos and the path to liberation as the tradition understands them.

The atmosphere of Hastinapur combines deep antiquity with vigorous contemporary devotion. Ancient mounds and archaeological remains testify to the great age of settlement here, while the gleaming new temples and pilgrim complexes reflect the living faith and prosperity of the modern Jain community, which has made Hastinapur a showcase of religious art and architecture.

Hastinapur is well provided with dharamshalas, bhojanshalas and pilgrim facilities, and it draws large numbers of visitors, especially around festivals connected with the Tirthankaras born here and with the Akshaya Tritiya celebration of Adinatha's fast-breaking. The town is reached most easily from Meerut, a well-connected city in western Uttar Pradesh, with Delhi within convenient reach by road.

The cooler months from October to March are the pleasantest for a visit to the northern plains. For the Jain pilgrim, Hastinapur offers a rich double heritage: the memory of an ancient royal capital known across all of India, and the sanctity of a place where three Tirthankaras were born and where the first true act of religious giving is believed to have taken place, an event still commemorated by fasting Jains across the world every year.