Pata, Sacred Hanging

This pigment-painted cloth panel depicts Mount Shatrunjaya, the most sacred place of pilgrimage of the Shwetambara Jain community. Most often, such panels are described as ‘maps’ but in reality these are idealized depictions of the sacred places rather than realistic maps. For this reason, they serve as objects of worship. Every year, on the day of the KartikPurnima of the Hindu calendar, the Jains commence pilgrimage to their sacred places, after the gap of four months of monsoon when pilgrimages are banned. Those who cannot undertake such a pilgrimage on account of illness or old age, worship such painted panels displayed in Jain temples of their locality.