History

Sometime around 1990, a handful of Jain families in Columbus, Ohio that practiced Pratikraman* and Samayik* at home often talked about needing a common place where all Jain devotees can practice Jainism. These talks continued and spurred several social events among these families as the moment to form a Jain Derasar (Temple) - a place for worship grew stronger each day. Traditional jain worship activities and performing Puja and Aarti among other rituals were performed at people’s home at first and then continued at the Old Bharatiya Hindu Temple in Westerville. The core members of this moment planned to hold a Snatra Puja at the temple and invited all participating families in the Columbus Area. This was the first step toward forming our very own Jain Temple.

The home-based practice was shifted to the Hindu Temple and was scheduled to occur periodically. It began monthly initially, but soon turned into a weekly event. Due to rising cost concerns for the use of the Hindu Temple facilities the Jain community decided to move to a dedicated place and rented another facility instead. This facility became the interim derasar for Jain worship. Around this time, the members of the community also formed a tax-exempt entity in the name of Jain Center of Central Ohio (JCOCO) with a financial body to handle monetary affairs. The JCOCO constitution was written in 1991. All who were present during the foundation days had a common understanding that Jain Center was formed to run in light of principles of Jain religion and was a place for any and all Jains to worship and practice Jainism.

 The rented facility was used as the Jain temple until 2007 when the community grew to about 40 families and it was unable to hold that capacity anymore. At this time the JCOCO members met and planned building out Jain temple in Lewis Center which was built in the years 2010-2011 and opened with great fanfare on 21st July 2011.