At Shatrunjaya

, pilgrims begin the climb before dawn — four, five in the morning — because the steps are exposed and you are barefoot, and by ten the stone is too hot to stand on. Two to three hours up, time among the temples at the top, and down before midday. The hill is emptied at dusk: no one, not even priests, stays overnight.

At Shikharji

it is more extreme. The full parikrama is around twenty-seven kilometres — up the hill, along the ridge visiting the tonks where each Tirthankara attained liberation, and back down — and devotees set out at one or two in the morning by torchlight to finish before the day heats up. It is a genuinely long day, done barefoot, and dolis (palanquins carried by porters) are available for those who cannot walk it.

At Girnar

, the same pre-dawn logic: a stairway of some ten thousand steps by tradition, with the Jain temple complex partway up and Hindu shrines continuing to the summit. Most pilgrims start in the dark.

At Shravanabelagola

, six hundred-odd steps cut into bare rock, and the rock is the problem — go at first light or in the late afternoon, never in between.

Ranakpur and Dilwara are the rest days

Both are level, both are visited on foot in ordinary clothes, and both often reserve the morning hours for worship and open to general visitors from around midday. Check locally; the timings shift.

Afternoons across the circuit are for resting

, and evenings for aarti at the temples in the towns below. Jain practice includes not eating after sunset, so dinner in a pilgrimage town happens early — plan to eat by six or seven.

And a note on season

many Jain hill temples restrict or suspend pilgrimage during the monsoon months of Chaturmas, when the risk of harming insects and small life on wet ground is highest. This is doctrinal, not administrative. October to March is the season.

The Gujarat cluster

is the most efficient. Palitana is about two hours from Bhavnagar, which has an airport, and around four from Ahmedabad. Girnar is at Junagadh, roughly three hours from Palitana and well connected by rail. Somnath and Diu are close by if you want to extend. Four or five days covers Gujarat properly.

The Rajasthan pair

is easy and beautiful. Ranakpur sits in the Aravalli hills about two and a half hours from Udaipur, on the road to Jodhpur. Mount Abu, for the Dilwara temples, is another two to three hours on from Ranakpur, and Abu Road is the railhead. Udaipur is the airport for both. Three days is comfortable, and the driving between them is some of the prettiest in Rajasthan.

Shikharji stands alone

, in Jharkhand. Parasnath railway station on the Delhi–Kolkata main line is about twenty kilometres from Madhuban, the pilgrim town at the base — that station exists essentially for this pilgrimage. Ranchi and Dhanbad are the nearest airports. Give it two nights in Madhuban: one to arrive and sleep early, one after the parikrama, because you will not be capable of travelling that evening.

Shravanabelagola

is in Karnataka, about three hours from Bengaluru and under two from Mysuru, which makes it an easy addition to a southern trip. It pairs naturally with the Hoysala temples at Belur and Halebidu.

If you have ten days and want the best of it

, I would do Gujarat and Rajasthan together — Palitana, Girnar, then up to Ranakpur and Dilwara — which gives you the two hardest climbs and the two finest marble temples in one arc, all in the cool season.

Roads are good across all four states

This is not a circuit where the travel is difficult; the difficulty is entirely in the climbing.

Toughen your feet

I am serious, and it is the most useful thing on this page. Every major Jain tirtha is climbed barefoot, on stone steps or bare rock, for hours. Start walking barefoot at home — on paving, on a garden path, on a beach — for a few weeks before you travel. Soft feet on three and a half thousand steps at Palitana is a miserable, blistered day.

Build the legs too

Shatrunjaya is a two-to-three-hour climb. Shikharji is a twenty-seven-kilometre day. Girnar is a stairway of some ten thousand steps. Six weeks of daily walking with stairs in it makes all three possible for an ordinarily fit person; without it, they are punishing.

Go between October and March

Many hill tirthas restrict pilgrimage during Chaturmas, the four monsoon months, for doctrinal reasons — walking on wet ground harms small life. Beyond that, the heat is the enemy: barefoot on sun-baked stone is genuinely dangerous from April onwards.

Start before dawn, every time

This is not optional at Palitana, Shikharji, Girnar or Shravanabelagola. Be at the base by four or five. At Shikharji, one or two in the morning.

Audit your bag for leather before you leave home

Belt, wallet, watch strap, bag, camera strap, shoes. Replace anything leather with fabric or synthetic. This will save you an argument at a gate at five in the morning.

Know that dolis are available

at Shatrunjaya, Shikharji and Girnar — palanquins carried by porters, for those who cannot climb. There is no shame attached to using one and elderly pilgrims routinely do.

Eat and drink before you climb, and understand the restrictions

Food is often not permitted on the sacred hills. At Shikharji in particular, plan to walk twenty-seven kilometres having eaten beforehand. Carry water where it is allowed. Ask at the base what the rule is that day.

Stay in the dharamshalas if you want the real thing

Jain pilgrimage towns — Palitana, Madhuban, Shravanabelagola — are built around dharamshalas and bhojanshalas run by trusts, offering simple rooms and strictly vegetarian meals. They are where pilgrims stay, and staying there is much of the experience.

Adjust your eating in advance if you can

Jain food excludes onion, garlic and root vegetables, and observant Jains do not eat after sunset. In these towns that is simply what is available. If you have a restricted diet or medical needs around meal timing, plan for it.

Learn a little about the twenty-four Tirthankaras

and which one belongs to which hill. Shikharji without knowing that twenty of them attained liberation on that ridge is just a long walk.

And bring patience for the marble

At Ranakpur and Dilwara you will want to stand still and look up for a long time. Do not schedule them tightly.

Nothing leather

Start here. Fabric belt, fabric or synthetic wallet, cloth bag, nylon watch strap, canvas or synthetic shoes. Anything leather will be refused at the temple gate, and at some tirthas at the foot of the hill.

Thick cotton socks, several pairs

Where socks are permitted — and this varies by site, so ask — they are the difference between a pleasant climb and blistered feet. Even where they are not, you will want them the moment you come down.

Shoes you can slip off instantly

, for everything below the climb.

Simple, modest, clean clothes

— shoulders and knees covered, cotton, light colours. Many pilgrims keep one set worn only for the temple. Bring more changes than you think; you will sweat through them on the climbs.

A cap and high-factor sunscreen

The hills are exposed and you will be on them from before dawn into the morning sun.

A torch or headtorch

Non-negotiable at Shikharji, where you start in the dark, and useful everywhere else.

A light day pack

with water, your torch, sunscreen and a spare shirt — and nothing else. You are carrying it up several thousand steps.

Foot care

Blister plasters, antiseptic, moisturiser for cracked heels, and a small towel. Apply moisturiser at night through the trip; barefoot climbing on hot stone dries feet out fast.

A walking stick,

or buy one at the base of the climb. Descending Shatrunjaya or Girnar on tired legs with bare feet is the moment you will want it.

Rehydration salts

— you will lose a great deal of water on a pre-dawn climb, more than you notice in the cool.

Your own medicines

, in quantity. Pilgrimage towns have basic pharmacies at best.

A water bottle you can refill

Leave behind

all leather, anything you would mind losing, meat or eggs in any form, and heavy luggage. You will be moving between four states and climbing several hills, and the lightest bag wins.

No leather. At all. Anywhere

Belts, wallets, shoes, watch straps, handbags, camera straps. This is the rule visitors break most often and it is non-negotiable — ahimsa means no animal product enters the temple. Check every item before you set out; a leather-trimmed bag will be refused.

Barefoot on the hills, not just in the temple

At Shatrunjaya, Shikharji, Girnar and Shravanabelagola the entire climb is done with bare feet, because the hill itself is sacred ground. Cloth or rubber-free socks are permitted at some sites; ask at the base rather than assuming.

Bathe before darshan

if you can, and wear clean clothes you have not worn elsewhere that day. Many devout pilgrims keep a separate set of clothes for the temple entirely.

No food, no drink, no chewing gum inside the temple precincts

At some hill tirthas food is not permitted on the hill at all, which is worth knowing before a twenty-seven-kilometre walk — carry water where it is allowed, and eat properly before you start.

Photography is prohibited inside many Jain temples,

and absolutely so at Dilwara. Do not try to be clever about it. Outside and on the approach, generally fine.

Menstruating women are traditionally asked not to enter

Jain temples. This is the practice, it is applied to Jain women as much as anyone, and it is not something you will be interrogated about — but you should know it exists.

Do not touch the idols

or the ritual objects. Only initiated worshippers perform the puja. Watch, do not join in unless invited.

Move clockwise

around the sanctum.

Digambara and Shvetambara are two distinct traditions

and their temples differ — Digambara idols are unadorned and unclothed, Shvetambara ones are ornamented with eyes and cloth. Shravanabelagola is Digambara; Palitana is largely Shvetambara. You may meet Digambara monks who wear nothing at all; this is a very old ascetic practice, it is not a spectacle, and staring or photographing is a serious discourtesy.

Speak softly and do not point your feet at an idol

Everything you eat in these towns will be vegetarian, and often stricter than that

— no onion, no garlic, no root vegetables, nothing after sunset. Palitana town itself has been declared meat-free. Do not carry meat or eggs into a pilgrimage town, and do not ask for them.

And no killing anything, including insects

If a fly lands on you, brush it away. Jain monks sweep the ground before them for exactly this reason.

Do not do all six in one trip

They are spread across four states and roughly two thousand kilometres, and three of them are hard climbs. Pick a cluster: Gujarat for Palitana and Girnar, Rajasthan for Ranakpur and Dilwara, or fly to Ranchi and give Shikharji the three days it deserves. Trying to string all six together produces a trip that is entirely airports and aching feet.

The barefoot climbing is the thing you will underestimate

Everyone does. Three and a half thousand steps at Palitana, in the dark, with bare feet. Prepare your feet, start early, take the doli if you need it.

Check every item for leather twice

I have watched a traveller turned back at the Dilwara gate over a leather camera strap after driving three hours to get there.

At Ranakpur and Dilwara, arrive after the worship hours

Both commonly reserve the morning for puja and open to general visitors around midday. Turning up at nine and being turned away is a wasted morning. Confirm the day''s timing locally.

At Dilwara, do not attempt to photograph anything

The ban is absolute and it is enforced. Put the phone in the bag before you approach. And then look up, for a long time — the ceilings there are among the finest carved surfaces on earth, and the marble is worked so thin in places that light comes through it.

At Ranakpur, count nothing and look at everything

There are said to be 1,444 pillars and no two carved alike. You will not verify that. What you will notice is that the light moves through the hall all day and the building never looks the same twice.

At Palitana, understand that the hill empties at dusk

You cannot stay up there. Plan the whole day around being up and down in the cool hours.

At Shikharji, respect the distance

Twenty-seven kilometres barefoot, starting at two in the morning, is a serious undertaking for a fit person. Sleep early the night before. Do not attempt it on your day of arrival. And plan to do nothing at all the following day.

At Shravanabelagola, go at first light

The granite dome is bare and by mid-morning it is too hot for bare feet. The Bahubali monolith at dawn, with the mist still on the fields below, is worth the alarm.

Eat the bhojanshala food

Simple, strictly vegetarian, served in the dharamshala dining halls, and much better than it sounds.

Ask questions

Jain pilgrims are, in my experience, unusually happy to explain their faith to an outsider who asks respectfully — and the explanations are genuinely interesting, because Jain metaphysics is unlike anything else you will have encountered.

And notice the sweeping

Watch a Jain monk move: the soft brush before each step, the cloth over the mouth, the care taken not to end even an insect''s life. Whatever you believe, spending a few days among people who take non-violence that seriously leaves a mark.