Sumatinath Digambar Jain Temple (Rajghat)

The Sumatinath Digambar Jain Temple stands quietly in the Mondhiana-Rajghat quarter of Ayodhya, a short walk from the Sarayu riverfront, honouring the janma kalyanak — the auspicious birth — of Bhagwan Sumatinath, the fifth of the twenty-four Tirthankaras of the present cosmic age.

• In Jain sacred geography Ayodhya (remembered in scripture as Ayodhyapuri or Vinita) is a tirtha of the very highest order, cherished as the birthplace of five Tirthankaras: Rishabhanatha (Adinath), Ajitanatha, Abhinandananatha, Sumatinatha and Anantanatha.
• For the Digambar community, each of these birth-sites is a kalyanak-kshetra, a hallowed ground where a Jina descended into the world, and this shrine marks the one dedicated to the fifth among them.
• According to Jain tradition, Sumatinath was born into the ancient Ikshvaku dynasty to King Meghaprabha (Megharatha) and Queen Mangala (Sumangala) in Ayodhya.
• His name evokes right discernment and wise judgement, and his emblem is the krauncha (heron); tradition describes his complexion as golden.
• Devotees come here to bow before the ground of his birth, to circumambulate the sanctum, and to sit in the stillness that Jain shrines cultivate so deliberately.
• The temple follows the classic north-Indian idiom — a shikhara rising over a marble-lined garbhagriha that enshrines the Tirthankara in seated padmasana, eyes lowered in meditative repose, rendered in the unadorned Digambar iconographic style.
• Daily abhishek and puja are performed by the local Digambar Jain community that maintains the shrine.
• The Rajghat-Mondhiana precinct is remembered in tradition alongside Anantnath, the fourteenth Tirthankara, and the temple is best understood as one node in Ayodhya's Jain pilgrimage circuit, which threads together the five kalyanak temples across the town.
• Pilgrims often visit during Mahavir Jayanti, the ten-day Das Lakshan Parva (Paryushan), and the annual observance of Sumatinath's birth, when the shrine is decorated and bhajans and jaap fill the enclosure.
• Ayodhya is a wholly vegetarian and alcohol-free holy city, and the food around this shrine reflects that entirely.
• Visitors of every faith are welcome; the simple courtesies of a Jain temple apply — remove shoes and any leather items outside, keep silence within the sanctum, and ask before photographing the murti.
• For a meal, the pure-vegetarian kachori-sabzi, dahi-jalebi and peda stalls near Naya Ghat and Rajghat are the traditional pilgrim's breakfast, and community bhandaras run through the pilgrimage season.