Museum of Jain heritage opens to public in Gujarat

The project that began as an idea nearly 15 years ago developed on paper in 2018. When the team from SJK Architects visited the site they saw the square plot thick with neem trees, and Jain pilgrims using it as a thoroughfare to move from the temple to the bhojanshala. “This led to the idea of an elevated building, creating a public space open to all. We retained and conserved all existing trees and built around them,” says Sarika Shetty, partner, SJK Architects. The museum stands six metres above the ground on two levels, in its pristine white form made with Ambaji marble.

“The museum is a celebration of the enlightened ones, the Tirthankaras. Often Jain temples are places of celebration with decoration, with all their carvings and storytelling. The museum depicts the Jain way of thinking, in its spartan, restrained design,” says Shimul Javeri Kadri, founding partner, SJK Architects.

The museum plan draws inspiration from the Ranakpur Temple, one of the five most sacred pilgrimage sites of Jainism, with the mandala or the yantra centric to its design, often seen in Jain paintings. On the entrance floor, a courtyard calls for pause, congregation and reflection. This non-ticketed space is open to all, from families to scholars and tourists. The shallow water body at the centre is an antidote for the region’s harsh summer while the neem trees provide the much-needed shade. This level also has the conservation laboratory, reserve vault and a temporary exhibition gallery. Ticketed access begins on the first floor, as one slowly climbs up towards the gallery on a ramp. The gallery spaces, spread across two floors, first are accessed in a clockwise direction and in an anti-clockwise order on the second floor, almost like a temple parikrama.

“This is also associated with many Jain pilgrimage centres, like in Palitana or Girnar, where temples are located at higher elevations and reaching them involves an upward journey. The ramp becomes a metaphor, an emotional expression of that movement from the lower realm to a higher one,” says Shetty.

SJK Architects ensured they would make this project collaborative when they got in Batul Raaj Mehta & Associates (BRMA) for the interpretive planning of the museum and Oases Design for the exhibition graphics. BRMA, who have worked on the planning and visitor experience for the Bihar Museum, brought their learning to this project. Founding partner Batul Raaj Mehta says, “We were mindful of the narrative we had before us, placing Jain history in context of its values, its chronology, across kingdoms and time frames. With the stories of the Tirthankaras through sculptures and scrolls, paintings and artefacts, we had to ensure the layperson and the scholar could derive meaning from the exhibits.”

To relieve museum fatigue, the architects placed jharokas along the facade, which opens out to the exterior. “In the museum, we endeavored to bridge the past and the present, in the most subtle, contemporary manner, such that the fundamental bridge is emotions. The emotion of austerity and serenity, non-violence, is what one should feel in the space, rather than overt symbology or reinterpretation of architectural gestures,” says Jhaveri.