Shantinatha Temple, Khajuraho

The Shantinatha Temple is a Digambara Jain temple in the eastern Jain group at Khajuraho, and part of the Khajuraho UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its present form, a quadrangle of shrine cells around an open courtyard, probably dates from 1870, when a festival marked a renewal of the site, but it encloses two Chandela-period shrines and fragments of other old temples, so its fabric and images span some ten centuries. Today it is the chief Jain place of worship at Khajuraho.

The central shrine holds a 4.3-metre image of Shantinatha, whose pedestal bears an inscription of 1027–28, now under plaster; smaller figures of all 24 tirthankaras flank it, and the doorway shows Ganga, Yamuna and the guardian Kshetrapala. The 18 shrines hold images from the 11th–12th and 19th–20th centuries, some brought from ruined temples at Fatehpur and Bilahri, and one carving is thought to show Mahavira's parents. A wing of the courtyard displays early 20th-century photographs.