Vimala Vasahi Temple and Tejpal Temple are two most significant temples in Dilwara temples. Vimala Vasahi Temple was built at the beginning of the 11th century by Vimal Shah. Composed of pure white marble, it is plain from the outside, but inside richly ornamented and sculptured. A procession of elephants leads up from the pavilion to the domed porch. These marble animals are laden with statues of the founder and his family. The temple courtyard is surrounded by a high wall enclosing some fifty cells, each one enshrining its saintly image. In the central shrine, laden with jewels, there sits the figure of Adinath, the first Jain pontiff. The octagonal dome, decorated by finely carved human and animal shapes and processions, is supported by eight sculptured pillars. The ceiling is a mass of intricate fretted marble lacework.
The Tejpal Temple was built two hundred years later. And here exuberance knows no bounds. It attains the zenith of Indian inventive genius in the art of decoration. The most striking feature is the pendant of the temple’s dome which, according to Fergusson, “hangs from the centre more like a lustre of crystal drops than a solid mass of marble”. To stimulate the zeal of the carvers they are said to have been offered rewards in silver equal in weight to that of the marble filings. Not content with this Tejpal, the lavish founder offered the weight in gold of any further filings that could be pared off after work was completed. Whatever the truth, there can be little doubt that, in the realization of these wonders, the proportion of perspiration to inspiration must have been well-balanced.
The Nakki Lake, a beautiful spot, the Toad Rock and the Nun Rock, the 14th century Raghunathji Temple founded by a famous reformer, Ramanand, the nearby Duleshwar Mahadev Temple, Arbuda Devi Temple dedicated to Mother Durga, on a high hill to the north of Abu, are among the other spots to be visited.