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Mattancherry

Place of worship · Mattancherry

Dharmanath Jain Temple

Thousands of pigeons descend for grain around 12:15 daily.

All 5 photographs

Dharmanath Jain Temple, on Gujarati Road in Mattancherry, is a Jain temple built in 1904 and dedicated to the 15th Tirthankara. The address is 5/688, Gujarati Road, Mattancherry, Kochi 682002.

Visitors are admitted from 11:00 to 12:30 each day. Outside those hours the temple shuts to visitors, so plan the walk around that window. The main idol is Dharmanatha, known as the mulnayak. The compound covers a wide area, with separate blocks for worship and for offerings. Inside it stands a second shrine dedicated to Chandraprabha.

Hirubai Jivraj Dhanji built the temple in 1904, in memory of her husband Jivraj Dhanji. The temple records the date as Vikram Samvat 1960, which is 1904 in the Gregorian calendar. Some tourism listings print 1960 as a Gregorian date, which is a mistake. Today the Cochin Swetamber Murtipujak Jain Sangh runs the temple. Paryushan, an eight-day festival of self-purification, is observed here every year.

What the cats hear

What visitors liked

  • A midday pigeon-feeding time, around 12:15-12:40pm.
  • Calm, peaceful atmosphere.
  • Beautiful Jain architecture.

Did you know

  1. The Jain temple is open to visitors for ninety minutes a day. At 12.15 the priests carry out plates of grain and thousands of pigeons drop into the courtyard at once.

  2. About 250 Jain families live in Kochi. Their families came down from Kutch and Gujarat to trade, and stayed.

  3. Paryushan, an eight-day self-purification festival, is held at Dharmanath Jain Temple every year.

  4. Some tourism listings give the temple’s build date as 1960, which is the Vikram Samvat year rather than the Gregorian one.

  5. Dharmanath Jain Temple is run by the Cochin Swetamber Murtipujak Jain Sangh.

  6. Visitors are admitted to Dharmanath Jain Temple from 11:00 to 12:30 each day.

  7. The main idol at Dharmanath Jain Temple is Dharmanatha, the 15th Tirthankara.

  8. Hirubai Jivraj Dhanji built the Dharmanath Jain Temple in 1904, in memory of her husband.

Experience Pigeon Feeding at Fort Kochi’s Jain Temple: A Fun Mid-Day Activity

Delve into the century-old tradition of pigeon feeding at the Jain Temple near Gujarati Road to experience one of the many enchanting cultural aspects of Fort Kochi.

Read the guide

Drawn from OpenStreetMap, by its contributors.