Jain Temple Lahore and the City's Hindu Heritage

The Jain temple Lahore is known for is the Jain Digambar temple on Lytton Road in Old Anarkali, at the junction still called Jain Mandir Chowk, opposite the Anarkali station of the Orange Line. Badly damaged in December 1992, it was restored on the orders of the Supreme Court and reopened in June 2022. Alongside it, Lahore has two working Hindu temples, the Krishna Mandir on Ravi Road and the Valmiki Mandir in Neela Gumbad, plus a small Lava temple inside Lahore Fort and a few Hindu havelis in the Walled City.

This guide covers each site, what you can and cannot see, how the 1992 damage and the recent restorations came about, and how to visit places of worship that serve a small living community.

What is the Jain temple in Lahore?

The Jain Digambar temple stands on Lytton Road in Old Anarkali, and the busy junction outside it has long been known as Jain Mandir Chowk. Its exact date is uncertain. It is generally placed in the late 1930s or early 1940s, and the Punjabi writer Iqbal Qaiser recorded that it was built by a woman in 1940. It is a shikhara temple, named after the Sanskrit word for mountain peak, with a tapering tower carved with religious motifs and courtyards around it. Today it stands about 13 metres high.

On 6 December 1992 the Babri Mosque was demolished in Ayodhya, India. Two days later mobs in Pakistan attacked Hindu places of worship in protest, and about 30 temples were damaged across the country, according to Anadolu Agency. The Jain temple, though not Hindu, was pulled down over two days with the help of a crane. Only the dome and part of the base survived, and they stood derelict for nearly three decades. In 2016 the remains were walled off while the Orange Line was built alongside.

In December 2021, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed ordered the ETPB to restore the Jain temple and a Hindu temple in Neela Gumbad. The work took eight months and cost about PKR 7 million (70 lakh rupees). It reinforced the foundations, put the original dome back in place and renewed the services, and the temple reopened for worship in June 2022.

Lahore's Jain families left in 1947, so the temple has no large local congregation. Look at it from the chowk, and ask at the gate if you would like to go in. Our Orange Line guide covers getting to Anarkali station.

Where did Lahore's Jains live?

Lahore once had a well-established Jain merchant community. The historian Majid Sheikh, writing in Dawn, records more than twelve Jain temples inside the Walled City before Partition, most of them near Shahalami, where many Jain traders lived and worked. Shahalami was burned in the riots of 1947.

Traces survive in the names of the lanes. Gali Bhabrian and Thari Bhabrian are named after the Bhabra, a trading community, many of them goldsmiths, who were largely Jain. Sheikh describes temple buildings surviving in Mohallah Bhabrian and a Jain Manzil, the community's meeting hall until 1947, in Tehsil Bazaar, now in very poor condition. These are private or neglected buildings in crowded residential lanes, not visitor sites. If you want to see them, go with a guide who knows the Walled City; our Walled City of Lahore guide covers the area.

For Jain temples you can explore properly, the best surviving group in Pakistan is in Tharparkar; see our Nagarparkar Jain temples guide.

Which Hindu temples in Lahore are still in use?

Krishna Mandir, Ravi Road

The Krishna Mandir stands on Ravi Road opposite the Timber Market, outside the old city walls. It is dedicated to Krishna and is managed by the ETPB, with the Pakistan Hindu Council involved in its running. It was damaged in the 1992 violence, and the ETPB set aside PKR 1.2 million in 2005 for its renovation and extension. A 2006 report that it had been demolished turned out to be wrong; the demolished property was several kilometres away, and the temple is still in use.

Valmiki Mandir, Neela Gumbad

The Valmiki Mandir is on Bhim Street in the Neela Gumbad area of Anarkali and is dedicated to the sage Valmiki, author of the Ramayana. Local accounts place its origins about 1,200 years ago, which would make it one of the oldest Hindu places of worship in the city, though this cannot be confirmed from records. It was attacked in 1992, when idols were damaged and the building was set on fire.

For about two decades afterwards a family who claimed ownership kept it closed to worshippers. In July 2022 a court found that the ETPB was the sole owner, and the temple was formally reopened on 3 August 2022 at a ceremony attended by more than 100 Valmiki Hindus and Sikh, Christian and Muslim leaders, according to Dawn. Diwali and Holi are its main festivals; our guides to Diwali in Pakistan and Holi in Pakistan cover what happens.

What is the Lava temple in Lahore Fort?

Inside Lahore Fort is a small temple dedicated to Lava, son of Rama and Sita in Hindu tradition. A Hindu legend holds that Lava founded the city, and that Lahore was once called Lavapuri, the city of Lava. The building itself dates from the Sikh period and is now empty; it is not used for worship. It lies within the Fort, so you need a Fort ticket, which our Lahore Fort ticket guide covers; ask the staff whether it is open on the day.

Which Hindu havelis survive in the Walled City?

The best known is Haveli Dina Nath, in Koocha Baij Nath near Delhi Gate. Raja Dina Nath, from a Kashmiri Pandit family, was a civil administrator and adviser at the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh for more than three decades. His haveli has about nineteen rooms and two basements around a courtyard, over about 47 marla. It is partly lived in by families, and part of it is held by the Auqaf department as a vocational training centre for girls, so you can usually see it only from outside.

Lahore's other great Hindu name is Sir Ganga Ram, the engineer who built the General Post Office, the Ganga Ram Hospital and much of modern Lahore. He died in London in 1927, and part of his ashes lie in a samadhi near Taxali Gate. For more havelis, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim, see our havelis in Lahore guide, and for the Sikh sites around the Fort, our Sikh heritage sites in Lahore guide.

How should I visit these temples?

Both mandirs and the Jain temple are places of worship for a small community, not tourist attractions.

• Ask at the gate first. Explain why you have come, and accept a no gracefully.
• Remove your shoes before entering the shrine area.
• Dress modestly, with shoulders and legs covered.
• Do not touch idols or offerings, and ask before taking any photograph.
• Avoid puja times unless you have been invited, and keep festival visits low-key.
• Expect security. Guards and bag checks are normal, and the community may be wary of strangers with cameras.

Article 20 of the Constitution of Pakistan gives every citizen the right to profess and practise their religion and every religious community the right to manage its own places of worship, and Article 36 directs the state to safeguard the rights of minorities. Hindus numbered about 5.2 million in the 2023 census, most of them in Sindh; Lahore's community is small. Our minorities in Pakistan guide covers the wider picture, and the Hindu temples in Punjab guide covers Katas Raj and other sites outside the city.

Is it worth visiting?

Yes, if you are interested in the Lahore that existed before 1947, or want to see how the restorations of 2022 turned out. The Jain temple is the easiest stop, visible from the street and next to a metro station. The two mandirs suit visitors who will ask politely and go with the flow, and the havelis and Bhabrian lanes suit a guided walk. If you want spectacular temple architecture, Katas Raj in the Salt Range will reward the trip more. More ideas for Lahore are on our experiences page.

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