Palitana is the town at the base of Satrunjaya Mountain. Its ancient name is 'Padaliptapur'. It was built in the memory of Guru Padalipti, by his disciple Nagmjuna. Some Jain families, pained by the political changes in Magadh, migrated to Rajasthan and Gujarat. They have built these Jain temples at Palitana, it is said.\

The first temple on Shatrunjay was made of wood, but when King Rajendra Kumarpala and his minister Uday came for the pilgrimage they dreaded its ultimate destruction in a fire. He therefore ordered that temples of stone be erected here, and Vagbhatta fulfilled this command.

The temples of Shatrunjay are numerous and have been erected due to the wishes of such prominent Jain personages as Acharya Hemchandra Sur, Maharaja Siddharaj, Maharaja Kumarpal, and such devoted ministers as Udayan, Vastupal, Tejpal, and wealthy devotees such as Jagdusha, Karamshah, and others. Thus many kings, suris, teachers, ministers, rich merchants and other devotees have created this temple complex that pleases the eye in their beauty.

This spot is the greatest attraction for tourists from India as well as other countries. Situated about 60 km from the city of Bhavnagar, it is the most famous Jain place of pilgrimage. The 603 m. high mountain range has 863 temples and covered the peaks of the entire range. The great scholar of Indian art and architecture, Burgese, notes that there is no other mountain range in the world that can boast of so many temples on their peaks. This is a sacred place for the Jains. Almost all the Jains have the desire to visit it at least once a year. The construction of these temples has taken nine generations to get completed. It thus is a story of man's faith and symbolizes me Mahajan's contribution to their society. Shatnmjay is believed to be the seat of the first of the Tirthankara, Adinath Rishabhdev. Every year, thousands of visitors come here to satisfy their needs of faith and curiosity of art in India, by visiting these temples built in 11th century. Many of them present to the temples precious jewelry and even diamonds. All these temples are managed by the well known Anandji Kalyanji Pedhi, a traditional firm that has been doing this work since a long time. We can view the jewelry of the images with their permission.

Most of the temples are built of marble and white stone. Their architecture, decorative sculptures and carvings are extraordinarily attractive and beautiful. The entire scenatio looks like the temples are hanging in the sky and give out very pleasing and sacred emotions to the viewer. The stone images of Pratimas, Devmurtis, Gandharvas and Apsaras and others seem to cover the mountain with milky whiteness, especially on a moonlit night. Sometimes the Shikharas look like the hands of men praying to the gods in the skies. The inspiration of religious devotion has taken a form here of some other-worldly nature, realizing in unison the human capacities and wishes of faith, wealth and art, symbolizing his and his society's aspirations to rise from the worldly poverty to spiritual riches.

Near Palitana is a dam on Shatrunjay that is worth visiting. We also can see a number of educational institutions that have developed at Palitana.

By constructing an imaginary triangle in the Gujarat Saurashtra region, we have completed our travel of the ancient sacred places of different faiths.Now that we have made an entry into Saurashtra, let us complete the visit by visiting the five main cities here.

First came a triangle, now comes a pentagon. The first comes the nearest city of Bhavnagar then Junagadh, Porbandar, Jamnagar, and then we shall move on to Rajkot. Indeed while visitning the cities we shall also talk of the places of interest near each of them.