Jambudweep, Hastinapur

Jambudweep is a Digambara Jain temple complex at Hastinapur in Uttar Pradesh, founded in 1972 by the Jain nun Gyanmati. Officially the Digambar Jain Trilok Shodh Sansthan, or Institute of Cosmographic Research, it sets out to teach Jain cosmology through structures that devotees can walk around. Gyanmati is said to have conceived the idea in 1965 during a Chaturmas stay at Shravanabelagola, and she drew the design from texts such as the Tiloyapannatti and Trilokasara.

The centrepiece, finished in 1985, models Jambudvipa, the central continent of the Jain middle world: a circle 250 feet across in white and coloured marble, with a 101-foot Mount Sumeru of light pink marble at its heart. Visitors can climb the mountain by an internal staircase or take a boat around the encircling ocean. Other shrines include the Lotus Temple of 1989, the Teen Murti and Meditation temples, a Trilok model of the three worlds, and the Terah Dweep temple with 458 miniature temples and 2,127 images.