Ghaṇṭākarṇa Mahāvīra and the Jain Tantric Diagrams of Temple Bells

What is the point of ringing a bell at the entrance to a temple? Jains have a unique answer to this question: ringing a bell protects the temple through the sounding of mantras. In many Jain temples, yantras, or tantric diagrams, are inscribed on these bells to send apotropaic messages into the world with each ring. This paper examines this unstudied ritual use of yantras by looking at the history of the Jain deity Ghaṇṭākarṇa Mahāvīra, whose nineteenth-century Śvetāmbara shrine in Mahudi, Gujarat, is one of the most popular temples in India, especially around Diwali. Examining rituals to Ghaṇṭākarṇa in early modern Sanskrit texts and yantras on the bells at the entrances to a few Digambara temples in north India reveals the forgotten history of Ghaṇṭākarṇa. Ghaṇṭākarṇa rose to prominence in Jainism not as a Śvetāmbara boon-giving deity, but as the focus of yantras inscribed on Digambara temple bells.