Pooni Jain Temple: Exploring Bhodesar’s Ancient Heritage

Pooni Jain temple of Bhodesar is located near the foothills of Karoonjhar mountain hills of Nagarparkar, district Tharparkar. This temple was originally named after the Jain lady who built this temple in 13th century from her earnings by making and selling Punis (cotton rolls prepared for spinning) . Therefore, this worship site was first known by Pooni Dahro.  

As per Etymology, the word Pooni refers to the sliver or fiber rolls (produced by the carding process, which separates raw fibres to prepare them for spinning process.) and Dahro refers to the worship place. And word Bhodesar is drived from two words i.e. Bhodi and Sar where Bhode/Bhoda is name of Rajput ruler, whereas Sar is a word from Sanskirit language which means Lake. 

The site of Bhodesar was once a famous, prosperous & populated capital city in the Tharparkar region during the reign of Rajput Parmara and Chaulukya (Solanki) dynasty.  As per historians and local people, Bhodesar city founded in 6th century. was named after ruler Bhoda Parmar who once formerly ruled this region. During that time large population of mercantile community of Jains and Rajputs were residing here. Other sources and literatures refer that people of Bhodesar region had formerly emigrated from Pari-Nagar (now a ruined site near Viravah) when troops of Delhi Sultanates attacked Pari-Nagar in about 1226 A.D. So after migration to Bhodesar, Jain community had constructed a number of large and small temples and business centers there.

Location of Pooni Jain Temple:

Pooni Jain Temple of Bhodesar is located at a distance of about 6km North-West from Nagarparkar town via Nagarparkar-Islamkot road. This Jain temple is situated near other famous historic and heritage sites including Bhodesar Lake (Dam), Bhodesar Mosque and Ashoka Temple.

GPS Coordinates: 24.395, 70.731

Architecture and Design of Temple:

The Pooni Jain Temple was built with large sandstone slabs and without usage of mortar based on classical Jainism or Nagara architectural design. This temple facing east direction is built on high raised platform with series of steps for reaching main section of temple. It has beautifully carved stone columns and other structural elements or sculptures. 

Unfortunately, with the passage of time, this temple is now in ruined state due to various possible reasons such as attacks from foreign enemies, earthquakes and bad weather conditions. As per records in history, earthquakes of January-2001 damaged structures of this temple including its Shikhara and platform that can be observed in pictures below. The walls of  this temple have now became weak and partially collapsed. Also some parts of the building had been demolished and stolen by the locals who used to construct their houses. 

It can be noticed from current condition of temple and its sections, it was once a beautiful and famous Jain temple having large mandapa with an entrance porch. Series of steps of its high raised platform were leading to main entrance porch. The original architectural design including Shikhara, high raised platform of this Jain temple resembles with the Jatashankar Madadev Temple of Chittorgarh (Rajasthan, India).

Carvings and Sculptures of Temple Structures:

An image of goddess on the all of Pooni Jain Temple of Bhodesar

Carvings on the wall of Shikhara of Pooni Jain Temple of Bhodesar

 

Side view of shikhara of Minar of Pooni jain temple

Conservation and Preservation:

The structures including carvings, high raised platform and walls of Pooni Jain temples are getting very weak and damaged due to bad weather conditions such as heavy monsoon rains and. That deteriorating structure of temple made Sindh Government's Department of Culture, Tourism, Antiquities & Achieves talking initiatives for staring projects for restoring and conserving the original look of temple.

Endowment Fund Trust for Restoration of the Heritage of Sindh (EFT), an organization under Sindh Government has restored the two-staged platform of Pooni Jain Temple at Bhodesar along with steps, motifs and figures as per original decoration. 

Every year, thousands of tourists and locals visit this site of Bhodesar for enjoying and exploring wonderful and beautiful architectures of Jain temples, lake, mosque, mountain hills and others. Most of tourists visit during and after the rainy spells of monsoon season (June to Oct.) as the whole desert region of Nagarparkar and its surrounding areas blooms with greenish plants and flowers.