Padampura (Bada Padampura) Digambar Jain Atishay Kshetra
Also Known As · Bada Padampura, Baada Padampura, Padampura Ji, Shri Digambar Jain Atishay Kshetra Padampura
Jaipur, Rajasthan · temple
Serene and unhurried — a big, bright, spotlessly kept marble complex set in open farmland, where the ritual rhythm belongs to pilgrims rather than to tourists. It feels less like a monument and more like a working place of faith that happens to be beautiful.
- Days OpenOpen daily
- Entry Fee₹0
- Best SeasonWinter (October–March). April–June is punishingly hot on open marble; July–September brings rain but a green Dhundhar countryside on the way down.
- Best Time of DayEarly morning, 6:00–9:00 am — abhishek is under way, the marble is cool underfoot, and you beat both the heat and the tour coaches.
- Time NeededAbout 1–2 hours at the shrine itself, but budget half a day door-to-door from Jaipur once you add roughly an hour's drive each way. Add another 30–40 minutes if you plan to eat at the bhojanshala.
- Nearest MetroNone. The Jaipur Metro does not serve this area
- Crowd LevelsQuiet to moderate on most weekdays — you may have the circular hall almost to yourself at dawn. Weekends and Jain festival days bring busloads from across North India, and the Vaishakh Shukla 5 fair (April–May) plus the Vijayadashami procession draw very large, devout crowds when parking and the bhojanshala both come under strain.
- Kid Friendly3 of 5
- Wheelchair AccessPartial
Most Rajasthani pilgrimages begin with a king's patronage. This one began with a farmer's spade. On Vaishakh Shukla 5 of Vikram Samvat 2001 — the spring of 1944 — a cultivator named Moola Jat was digging a house foundation in Shivdaspura, a working village on the Jaipur–Kota road, when the earth gave up a small stone figure: Padmaprabhu, sixth of the twenty-four Tirthankaras, seated in padmasana, carved in stone and barely two feet four inches tall. Eight decades later that modest image — small enough to be cradled in two hands — is the mulnayak of one of North India's busiest Digambar Jain shrines, and the reason coaches turn off the highway some 35 km south of the Pink City.
Where to Eat Nearby
Nearby Vegetarian Eats
Kanha Restaurant (Tonk Road)
28 km awayThe Rajasthani thali — dal baati churma, gatte ki sabzi and kadhi — at the natural halfway halt on the drive back to the city.
Laxmi Misthan Bhandar (LMB), Johari Bazaar
33 km awayPaneer ghevar and the eggless bakery counter — a sweet house since 1727 that has traded as LMB since around 1950.
Ganesh Restaurant, Nehru Bazaar
34 km awayKadhi and paneer dishes eaten on the tiny rooftop built into the old city wall near New Gate.
About
Most Rajasthani pilgrimages begin with a king's patronage. This one began with a farmer's spade.
- On Vaishakh Shukla 5 of Vikram Samvat 2001 — the spring of 1944 — a cultivator named Moola Jat was digging a house foundation in Shivdaspura, a working village on the Jaipur–Kota road, when the earth gave up a small stone figure: Padmaprabhu, sixth of the twenty-four Tirthankaras, seated in padmasana, carved in stone and barely two feet four inches tall.
- Eight decades later that modest image — small enough to be cradled in two hands — is the mulnayak of one of North India's busiest Digambar Jain shrines, and the reason coaches turn off the highway some 35 km south of the Pink City.
- What grew around it is unusually disciplined for a fast-growing tirth.
- A merchant, Mahorilal Godha, gave the field; Seth Bhagchandji Soni of Ajmer laid the foundation stone.
- The result is a circular marble sanctuary spread across roughly 50,000 sq ft, its shikhara rising about 85 feet, with the little Padmaprabhu enshrined high at the centre and eleven vedis ringing it — ashtadhatu, marble and dark-stone images of Bahubali, Mahavira, Rishabhanatha and Naminatha among them.
- Outside stand a manastambha of some 61 feet, four-faced at its crown, and a 27-foot colossus of Padmaprabhu upright in kayotsarga.
- The contrast is the whole point: the giant announces, the tiny one is worshipped.
- "Atishaya" means wonder, and an Atishaya Kshetra is a place where devotees hold that something beyond ordinary explanation occurred.
- Local tradition credits the idol's appearance with ending the village's water scarcity and a run of cattle disease, and pilgrims come believing that prayer here eases affliction of body and mind.
- Whether or not you share the belief, the atmosphere rewards quiet: bare-chested Digambar ritual, the slow pour of abhishek, marble underfoot that stays cool when the Rajasthan afternoon does not.
- Crowds swell for the Vaishakh Shukla 5 anniversary fair, for Falgun Krishna 4, and for the Vijayadashami procession.
- For a vegetarian traveller this is one of the least anxious meals in the Jaipur region.
- The entire kshetra is vegetarian and alcohol-free by religious rule, and the on-site bhojanshala attached to the dharamshala serves plain Jain food — no meat, no egg, and typically no root vegetables, since Jain observance excludes them.
- That is a genuine rarity: elsewhere around Jaipur a "pure veg" board says nothing about egg, but here the kitchen's whole logic forbids it.
- Meal service runs to fixed sittings, so ask at the office on arrival rather than assuming.
- Treat Padampura as a half-day excursion, not a city stop — it sits in Jaipur district, not Jaipur city, and the drive down Tonk Road takes the better part of an hour each way.
Timings & Entry Fee
Visiting Hours
- • Daily: approximately 5:30 am – 8:30 pm (reported)
- • Sanctum typically closed for a period around the midday abhishek and cleaning
- • Bhojanshala operates on fixed sittings — confirm timings at the office on arrival
- • Timings follow ritual and the Jain calendar and vary seasonally; telephone ahead before a 35 km drive
Entry Fee: Darshan is free, as at Jain shrines generally. Donations are voluntary and go through the kshetra office or a hundi — there is no ticket counter. A camera fee is sometimes mentioned for still photography inside; ask at the office rather than assuming. Dharamshala rooms and bhojanshala meals are charged separately at nominal pilgrim rates.
Verified: July 2026
Location & How to Reach
Address
Shri Digambar Jain Atishay Kshetra, Bada Padampura, Shivdaspura, Chaksu Tehsil, Jaipur District, Rajasthan 303903, Jaipur, Rajasthan, 303903
🚇 Nearest Metro: None. The Jaipur Metro does not serve this area — the nearest station, Mansarovar, is roughly 30 km north and is not a sensible starting point. Ignore any listing that routes you here by metro.
🚶 Walking from Metro: Not applicable — the temple is around 35 km from Jaipur city and unreachable on foot from any metro station.
Distance from
- • Jaipur city centre (MI Road / Panch Batti): 35 km (~60 min)
- • Jaipur Junction Railway Station: 33 km (~55 min)
- • Jaipur International Airport (Sanganer): 22 km (~40 min)
- • Sanganer (Sanghiji Jain temple): 18 km (~30 min)
- • Chaksu town: 10 km (~15 min)
- • Sindhi Camp Bus Terminal, Jaipur: 36 km (~65 min)
Parking
on-site · Free or nominal
There is generous open parking within the complex, sized for the pilgrim coaches that arrive from across North India, so a car is never a problem on an ordinary day. On the Vaishakh Shukla 5 fair days and at Vijayadashami the ground fills and overflow parking pushes out onto the approach road — another argument for an early weekday visit.
🚕 Ride Hailing Tip: Ola and Uber will accept a drop to Shivdaspura from Jaipur, but almost never a pickup back — you will be stranded at a 35 km distance with no surge to tempt anyone out. The sensible arrangement is a hired car or taxi for the round trip with the driver waiting; agree the fare, the waiting time and the fact that you are making no shopping detours before you leave the city. Expect a fair round-trip rate rather than a metered one, and confirm whether tolls on NH-52 are included. If you do come by app cab one way, ask the kshetra office to help you find a local taxi back, or take a shared auto to Chaksu and a bus from there.
How to Reach: Padampura lies at Shivdaspura in Chaksu tehsil, about 33–35 km south of Jaipur on the Jaipur–Kota road (NH-52 / Tonk Road) — reckon 45–60 minutes by car in normal traffic, longer if Sanganer is congested. There is no metro anywhere near it; the Jaipur Metro's Pink Line ends far to the north and is of no use for this trip, despite what some listings claim. By public transport, Rajasthan Roadways and JCTSL buses run the Tonk Road corridor from Ajmeri Gate and Sindhi Camp via Tonk Phatak, Sanganer and Bilwa; JCTSL Route 16 runs from Ajmeri Gate to Chaksu via Tonk Phatak, Durgapura, Sanganer Thana, Pratap Nagar, 12 Mile, Bilwa and Shivdaspura — alight at Shivdaspura for the kshetra. Buses are slow (two hours or more) but cheap. Chaksu also has a railway station on the Jaipur–Sawai Madhopur line, roughly 10 km from the shrine, though train timings rarely suit a day-tripper. The practical option is a hired car or app cab; agree the return leg in advance, as cabs back from Shivdaspura are scarce.
Best Time to Visit
History & Significance
History
The shrine's history is short, well documented and entirely bound up with a single object. On Vaishakh Shukla 5, Vikram Samvat 2001 — corresponding to 1944 CE — a Shivdaspura farmer named Moola Jat struck stone while digging the foundation for his house and uncovered a stone image of Padmaprabhu, the sixth Tirthankara — described variously in sources as red, black or white stone — roughly two feet four inches tall and seated in padmasana.
- The idol itself is older than the temple by an unknown margin; no reliable inscription dates its carving, and honest sources do not pretend otherwise.
- Word of the find travelled fast through Rajasthan's Digambar community, and the site was quickly recognised as an Atishaya Kshetra.
- A merchant named Mahorilal Godha donated a broad field for a temple, and Seth Bhagchandji Soni of Ajmer laid the foundation stone.
- The circular marble complex that followed, with its 85-foot spire, eleven vedis, 61-foot manastambha and 27-foot kayotsarga colossus, is therefore a modern construction — twentieth-century and later — rather than a medieval survival, and it should not be confused with genuinely ancient Jain sites such as Sanghiji at Sanganer.
- What is old here is the idol and the devotion; the marble around it is new, and deliberately so.
Significance
Padampura is one of the principal Digambar Jain Atishaya Kshetras of North India — a designation reserved for sites where the community holds that events beyond ordinary explanation have occurred.
- The claim here rests on the idol's emergence from the ground and on the traditions that followed it: villagers recount that a chronic water shortage eased, that livestock stopped dying of disease, and that harvests recovered after the image was installed.
- Pilgrims travel from across Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and beyond in the belief that prayer before this Padmaprabhu relieves physical and mental affliction, and the shrine has become a fixture on the Jain tirth circuit despite being less than a century old as a built complex.
- Its significance is also social: the kshetra runs a large dharamshala, a bhojanshala, a reading room and a dispensary, functioning as infrastructure for pilgrim life rather than as a heritage exhibit.
- For a visitor of any faith, Padampura is worth understanding as a live demonstration of how a place of pilgrimage is actually made — not by antiquity alone, but by a community deciding that something matters and building accordingly.
Places to Visit Nearby
Sheetla Mata Temple, Chaksu
10 km awayA hilltop shrine on Sheel ki Dungri reached by around 150 steps, famous for its Shitla Ashtami lakkhi fair; pairs naturally with Padampura on the same run down NH-52.
Digambar Jain Mandir Sanghiji, Sanganer
18 km awayThe genuinely ancient counterpoint to Padampura — a red-stone Jain temple at Sanganer with carving traced to around the 10th century and sealed underground chambers.
Albert Hall Museum
30 km awayRajasthan's oldest museum, an Indo-Saracenic showpiece in Ram Niwas Bagh — the obvious first stop as you re-enter the city from the south.
Galtaji Temple
32 km awaySpring-fed kunds in a rocky ravine east of the city — another temple complex that rewards an early start and a slow pace.
Johari Bazaar
33 km awayThe old city's jewellery and sweets artery — where a Padampura day trip usually ends, over a plate of ghevar.
Family & Accessibility
Family Highlights
- • The 27-foot standing Padmaprabhu and the 61-foot manastambha give children something enormous to crane at before they are asked to be quiet indoors.
- • Wide, level marble courtyards with room to walk — a relief after the crush of the old city's monuments.
- • The story is genuinely tellable to a child: a farmer digging a house found a small statue in the ground, and this whole marble town grew around it.
- • The bhojanshala's fixed-sitting Jain meal is a calm, unfussy, guaranteed-eggless lunch — easier than negotiating a restaurant with kids in tow.
Photography & Drone
💰 Equipment Fees: No formal published tariff. A nominal still-camera charge is sometimes mentioned at the office; confirm on arrival rather than assuming, and expect video and tripods to need separate permission.
📍 The Golden Spot: From the outer precinct with the 61-foot manastambha in the foreground and the 85-foot circular shikhara behind it — the one frame that conveys the complex's geometry. Indoors, the daylight funnelling down the dome onto the small mulnayak is the better picture, but only with permission.
🌅 Best Light Time: Shortly after sunrise, roughly 6:00–8:00 am, when low light warms the white marble and the complex is empty. Late afternoon works too, though the west-facing marble goes harshly bright until the sun drops.
Tips & Safety
⚠️ Common Scams
The gemstone detour on the way back
Jaipur's most persistent tourist scam finds you on this route. A hired driver, having been perfectly pleasant all morning, suggests a quick stop at a gem 'factory' or a government-approved 'emporium' on the Tonk Road return leg. Inside, a courteous salesman explains a scheme in which you buy stones cheaply and a partner abroad resells them at a profit. The stones are near-worthless; the driver takes a commission; the certificate means nothing.
Official AdviceState before you leave Jaipur that the trip is temple and back, no shopping stops, and put it in the fare agreement. If the car pulls in anyway, stay in it. No genuine bargain in precious stones has ever been found at a stop you did not choose.
Stranded with no return ride
App cabs will drop you at Shivdaspura but rarely accept a pickup from it, and travellers who arrive by Ola or Uber routinely find themselves 35 km from Jaipur with no way back. The local taxis who then materialise know exactly how weak your position is and quote accordingly.
Official AdviceBook a round trip with waiting time, not a one-way drop. If you are already stuck, ask the kshetra office to call a local taxi — a rate arranged by the temple staff will be far more reasonable than one negotiated in the car park — or take a shared auto to Chaksu and pick up a Jaipur bus.
Unofficial 'guides' and donation collectors
Padampura has no official guide service and no entry ticket. At busier times someone may attach themselves to you offering an explanation of the shrine, or press for a 'compulsory' donation with a receipt book, particularly around the fair days.
Official AdviceAll genuine donations go through the kshetra office or the hundi inside — nothing is compulsory and there is no charge for darshan. Decline politely and walk on; temple staff will confirm what is official if you are unsure. The office is also the honest source for timings and camera rules.
Confusion with the Padampura temple inside Jaipur city
There is a separate, much smaller Padampura Digamber Jain Mandir in the Rathore Nagar / Shyam Nagar area of Jaipur city, and several travel websites blend the two — publishing city coordinates, metro directions and timings under this shrine's name. Follow them and you will spend an afternoon at the wrong temple.
Official AdviceThe Atishaya Kshetra is at Shivdaspura, Chaksu tehsil, roughly 26.726°N 75.939°E, about 35 km south of Jaipur on the Jaipur–Kota road. If a listing tells you to take the metro, it is describing the other temple. Navigate to 'Bada Padampura' or 'Shivdaspura', not 'Padampura'.
💡 Insider Tips
🌅 Secret View: Stand directly beneath the centre of the circular hall and look straight up into the 85-foot spire — the dome funnels daylight down onto the small Padmaprabhu, and around mid-morning the idol is lit while the ambulatory stays in shadow. Almost every visitor photographs the 27-foot colossus outside and misses this.
🎯 Crowd Hack: Arrive between 6:00 and 8:00 am on a weekday. The pilgrim coaches from Jaipur and Delhi rarely reach Shivdaspura before 10:00, so the early window gives you the abhishek, cool marble and an almost empty complex. Avoid Vaishakh Shukla 5 (April–May) and Vijayadashami entirely unless you have come specifically for the fair.
💎 Secret Fact: The famous 27-foot Padmaprabhu standing outside is not the idol anyone comes to worship. The mulnayak is the two-foot-four-inch figure inside — the one Moola Jat's spade found in 1944. Several travel listings blur the two, describing the giant standing colossus as the shrine's main idol; in fact the venerated image is the small seated one. The giant is signage; the small one is the shrine.
⚡ Express Tour
Sixty minutes: shoes and leather off at the gate, straight into the circular hall for darshan of the mulnayak, one slow pradakshina past the eleven vedis, out to the manastambha and the kayotsarga colossus for scale, then back to the car before the coaches land.
🔭 Deep Dive Tour
Half a day: reach the gate by 6:30 am for abhishek, circle the eleven vedis slowly and pick out Bahubali, Mahavira and Rishabhanatha among the ashtadhatu and dark-stone images, walk the outer precinct to the 61-foot manastambha, sit for a while in the garden as the heat builds, take the fixed-sitting Jain meal at the bhojanshala, then drive back via Sanganer to see Sanghiji — the ancient Jain temple that makes Padampura's newness legible by contrast.
🙏 Etiquette & Dress Code
Do's
- Remove shoes and all leather — belts, wallets, watch straps, handbags — before entering. Leather is prohibited in Jain temples, and this is the rule most often broken by first-time visitors.
- Telephone the kshetra office before setting out to confirm darshan timings and bhojanshala sittings; it is a 35 km drive to discover the sanctum is closed for midday abhishek.
- Cover shoulders and knees, and keep your voice down inside the circular hall — pilgrims are praying, not posing.
- Fix your return transport before you leave Jaipur. Cabs are scarce at Shivdaspura and you do not want to be negotiating from a standing start at dusk.
- Carry drinking water and a hat between April and June. The complex is bright open marble with limited shade in the outer precinct.
- Ask permission at the office before photographing inside, and accept a no gracefully.
Don'ts
- Don't wear or carry leather into the temple, and don't argue the point — it is a core Digambar observance, not a formality.
- Don't photograph worshippers, monks or the abhishek without explicit permission. Digambar ritual involves nudity by religious vow; treating it as a photo opportunity is a serious discourtesy.
- Don't plan to reach Padampura by metro. Some listings route visitors here via the Pink Line — they are describing a different, similarly named temple inside Jaipur city, and the metro does not come within 30 km of this shrine.
- Don't let a hired driver detour you to a gemstone or handicraft 'factory' on the Tonk Road return leg — that is a commission trap, not part of the trip.
- Don't turn up expecting a medieval monument. The marble complex is modern; the idol is what is old and revered.
- Don't bring food, and don't bring pets into the complex.
- Don't visit on Vaishakh Shukla 5 or Vijayadashami if you want quiet — those are the shrine's largest crowd days of the year.
👕 Dress Code: Modest and respectful: shoulders and knees covered for all visitors. Shoes come off at the entrance, and all leather articles — belts, wallets, watch straps, bags, camera straps — must be left outside, which is stricter than at Jaipur's Hindu temples. Menstruating women traditionally do not enter the sanctum. There is no cloakroom worth relying on, so travel light and leave valuables in the car with someone.
📷 Photography Rules: Photography of the complex, the manastambha and the outdoor colossus is generally tolerated, but the sanctum and the abhishek are another matter — ask at the kshetra office before raising a camera indoors, and accept a refusal without argument. A nominal still-camera fee is sometimes mentioned. Never photograph Digambar monks or worshippers without explicit permission; the tradition involves religious nudity and photographing it is a grave discourtesy. Tripods, flash near the vedis and drones are out.
Good to Know
💳 Money & Connectivity
🏧 Nearest ATM: There are ATMs in Shivdaspura village and a wider cluster in Chaksu town, roughly 10 km on. Both can be out of cash or offline; draw what you need in Jaipur before you set out rather than relying on a rural machine.
📡 Public Wi-Fi: None. There is no visitor Wi-Fi at the kshetra — download your map and the office number before leaving Jaipur.
🔌 Charging Points: No public charging points for visitors. Guests staying at the dharamshala have power in their rooms, but day visitors should arrive with a charged phone and carry a power bank. EV drivers should note there is no reliable charger at Shivdaspura; charge in Jaipur, as the round trip is roughly 70 km.
🚻 Washrooms & Hygiene
Pro Tip: The facilities attached to the dharamshala block are markedly better kept than anything on the highway between Sanganer and Shivdaspura — use them before you start the drive back. Carry your own tissue and hand sanitiser; soap is not dependable, and standards slip sharply on fair days.
🛍️ Shopping & Souvenirs
✓ What to Buy
- • Devotional items from the small stalls near the gate — books on Jain doctrine, Namokar Mantra prints, incense and simple brass ritual ware
- • Marble and ashtadhatu miniatures of the Tirthankaras, sold plainly and priced modestly by pilgrimage standards
✗ What to Avoid
- • Gemstones or 'certified' precious stones offered anywhere on the Tonk Road route — Jaipur's signature tourist scam, and no bargain exists at a roadside stop
- • Any 'factory outlet' or emporium a driver proposes on the way back; these are commission stops, not shops you chose
- • Leather goods, which you cannot carry into the complex in any case
- • Anything sold as a temple 'donation receipt' by someone who is not at the kshetra office
Bargaining: No
🆘 Emergency & Health
Helplines
👮 Tourist Police: There is no tourist police post at Padampura — this is rural Jaipur district, not the city circuit. The nearest regular police station is at Shivdaspura, with the larger Chaksu police station about 10 km away. Rajasthan's tourist police operate around Jaipur's city monuments; for anything here, dial 112 or approach the kshetra office, whose staff are the practical first port of call.
🎒 Lost & Found: Report anything lost to the kshetra office immediately — it is a small, well-run establishment and staff know the complex. Because shoes, belts, wallets and bags are all surrendered at the entrance, mix-ups at the shoe stand are the commonest mishap; label nothing valuable and simply do not bring what you cannot afford to lose. There is no formal lost-property counter and no tourist-police desk to escalate to.
💊 Nearest Pharmacy: The kshetra runs a small dispensary on the premises, which is the quickest help for a minor complaint. Beyond that, chemists operate in Shivdaspura village and more reliably in Chaksu town about 10 km on, though rural shops keep irregular hours. For anything serious the answer is Jaipur, roughly 35 km back — carry your own supply of any regular medication rather than counting on finding it locally.
Air Quality: Air here is generally cleaner than in central Jaipur — this is open farmland well south of the city's traffic. The exceptions are the winter months, when regional haze settles across the Tonk Road corridor from November to January, and the dusty pre-monsoon weeks of April–June. Anyone with asthma should carry an inhaler; the drive out through Sanganer's industrial stretch is the least pleasant part of the journey.
Water Safety: Don't drink from taps or hand pumps in the village. The kshetra maintains a shital jal (cool water) facility for pilgrims and the water is intended for drinking, but travellers with sensitive stomachs should stick to sealed bottled water carried from Jaipur — check the seal is intact. The bhojanshala's food is prepared to strict Jain standards and is generally trustworthy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far is Padampura Jain temple from Jaipur and how long does it take?
About 33–35 km south of Jaipur city, at Shivdaspura on the Jaipur–Kota road (NH-52 / Tonk Road). Allow 45–60 minutes each way by car, or roughly two hours by public bus down the Tonk Road corridor. It is in Jaipur district, not Jaipur city, so treat it as a half-day excursion rather than a stop you can slot between the City Palace and Hawa Mahal.
Is there an entry fee at Padampura Digambar Jain Atishay Kshetra?
No. Darshan is free and there is no ticket counter — donations are entirely voluntary, via the kshetra office or a hundi. A nominal camera fee for still photography inside is sometimes mentioned; ask at the office when you arrive rather than assuming. Dharamshala rooms and bhojanshala meals carry their own modest pilgrim charges.
What are the temple timings?
Reported as roughly 5:30 am to about 8:30 pm daily, with the sanctum usually closed for a period around the midday abhishek and cleaning. These hours are governed by ritual and the Jain calendar rather than a tourism schedule, and they shift seasonally — telephone the kshetra office before making the drive, especially if you are arriving late in the evening.
Can non-Jains visit Padampura, and is there a dress code?
Yes, visitors of all faiths are welcome for darshan, provided you observe the shrine's discipline. Cover shoulders and knees, remove shoes and leather items — belts, wallets, watch straps and bags — before entering, as leather is prohibited in Jain temples. Menstruating women traditionally do not enter the sanctum. Behave as you would in any active place of worship: quietly, and without treating worshippers as photographic subjects.
Is vegetarian and eggless food available at the temple?
Yes, and reliably so. The bhojanshala attached to the dharamshala serves simple Jain vegetarian meals — no meat, no egg, and generally no root vegetables such as onion, garlic or potato, which Jain observance excludes. Service runs to fixed sittings, so check timings at the office on arrival. It is one of the few places near Jaipur where eggless is guaranteed by religious rule rather than by a signboard.
What is the main idol at Padampura and why is it famous?
The mulnayak is a stone image of Padmaprabhu, the sixth Tirthankara, only about two feet four inches tall and seated in padmasana. A farmer, Moola Jat, unearthed it in 1944 while digging a house foundation, and the site was designated an Atishaya Kshetra — a place of wonder. The separate 27-foot standing Padmaprabhu outside is a modern colossus, not the venerated idol; some listings confuse the two.