Shri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir

Shri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir is the oldest and best-known Jain temple in Delhi, India. It is directly across from the Red Fort in the historical Chandni Chowk area.

Digambar  Jain Lal Mandir is one of the  Delhi's  oldest temple dates  back  to the time of  Aurangzeb's  reign.  It  is situated right opposite  the  Red Fort,  at  the entrance  of  the  main  road.  In the  adjoining lies the noisy and chaotic main street of Chandni Chowk.  Modern Delhi was founded by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1628–1658) who built what is commonly known as the old city or old Delhi, surrounded by a wall, with the main street Chandni Chowk in front of the Red Fort, the imperial residence.

Jahangir invited several Jain fianciers to come and settle in the city and granted them some land south of the Chandani Chauk around Dariba Gali. He also permitted them to build a temporary structure to house a Jain temple. The Jain community acquired three marble idols installed by Jivaraj Papriwal under the supervision of Bhattaraka Jinachandra in Samvat 1548  for the temple. The main idol is that of Tirthankara Parshva. It is said that the deities in temple were originally kept in a tent belonging to a Jain officer of the Mughal army. During the Mughal period, the construction of a sikhara for a temple was not permitted. This temple did not have a formal sikhara  until after India's independence when the temple was extensively rebuilt. In 1800-1807, Raja Harsukh Rai, the imperial treasurer obtained imperial permission to build a temple with a sikhara in the Jain neighborhood of Dharamapura, just south of Chandani Chauk. Thus temple, known for fine carvings, is now known as the Naya Mandir "New Temple".