Type: Monument - Temple
Province: Punjab
District: Lahore
Period: Historic
Relative Chronology: 1857 - 1947 CE
Description: Next to the planetarium, close to the old Anar Kali is a tall, cone-shaped Jain Temple. This is situated in the center of the road, with two roads passing around it. Next to it are wooden balconies, with intricate designs on them; part of the original complex. This was one of the three Jain temples in Lahore. The other ones were inside the Bhatti gate and on Feroz pur Road, near Model Town. The temple stood in the middle of this bifurcation of roads, which earned this junction the name of Jain Mandar Chowk. Years of religious disuse had resulted in severe depredation of the structure. It various compartments, originally used by visiting pilgrims, students and priests, are now taken up by refugees of the partition of 1947. Their interconnected rooms have been permanently closed by mortar and bricks, as the demand of privacy increased among the new occupants. Larger rooms were divided into two, or sometimes even more, and the surplus ones rented out. All of these small rooms entertain much more people, then meant to. A cycle tire repairperson had made a makeshift shop on the pavement, next to the temple, many years ago, and still sits here.
Latitude: 31.576139861
Longitude: 74.317036870
Ownership: Evacuee Trust
Legal Status: Protected by The Punjab Special Premises (Preservation), Ordinance, 1985
Title of Publication: On shaky grounds
Published In: https://lahorenama.wordpress.com/tag/sitla-mandir/
Year of Publication: 2021 (Retrieved)
Bibliography/Reference: Khalid, Haroon
