Sammed Shikharji is not simply one sacred mountain among several for Jains; tradition holds that twenty of the twenty-four Tirthankaras achieved final liberation on this specific peak.
The most liberations tied to one place
Jain tradition holds that twenty of the twenty-four Tirthankaras attained moksha, final liberation from the cycle of rebirth, at Sammed Shikharji, a concentration of significance unmatched by any other single Jain pilgrimage site, including Shatrunjaya and Girnar, each of which is tied more narrowly to one or two specific Tirthankaras rather than to the majority of the entire line.
A different name, a different meaning
The same hill is known to the local Santhal people as Marang Buru, meaning great mountain, a name reflecting an entirely separate indigenous sacred tradition that predates, and exists independently of, its Jain significance, with the Santhal understanding the mountain through their own cosmology rather than through the Tirthankara liberation narrative.
Two traditions, one physical mountain
The mountain's standing as sacred ground to both communities, on entirely different religious terms, is the underlying fact behind the land-use dispute covered in this entry's companion article, and this entry describes both traditions' claims to the mountain's significance rather than treating either one as merely incidental to the other.