Siddhachal Caves

Siddhachal Caves
Colossal Jain statues in Gwalior
Religion
Affiliation	Jainism
District	Gwalior
Deity	Tirthankaras
Location
Location	Gwalior Fort
State	Madhya Pradesh
Country	India
Shown within India Show map of India Siddhachal Caves (Madhya Pradesh) Show map of Madhya Pradesh
Geographic coordinates	26°13′26.3″N 78°09′54.6″E / 26.223972°N 78.165167°E / 26.223972; 78.165167
Architecture
Style	Jainism
Creator	Tomaras of Gwalior
Date established	7th-century
Completed	15th-century

Siddhachal Caves are Jain cave monuments and statues carved into the rock face inside the Urvashi valley of the Gwalior Fort in northern Madhya Pradesh, India. There are the most visited among the five groups of Jain rock carvings on the Gwalior Fort hill. They were built over time starting in the 7th-century, but most are dated to the 15th-century CE. Many of the statues were defaced and destroyed under the orders of the Muslim Emperor Babur of the Mughal dynasty in the 16th century, while a few repaired and restored after the fall of the Mughal dynasty and through the late 19th century.^[1]

The statues depict all 24 Tirthankaras. They are shown in both seated Padmasana posture as well as standing Kayotsarga posture, in the typical naked form of Jain iconography. The reliefs behind some of them narrate scenes from the Jain legends. The site is about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the South-East Group of Gopachal rock cut Jain monuments and about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) northwest of the Teli ka Mandir within the Gwalior Fort.^[2]

The Siddhachal Jain collosi cave temple is one of the Archaeological Survey of India's Adarsh Smarak Monument along with other monuments in the Gwalior Fort.^[3]