Neminatha

Common card · No. 319502

Neminatha (Devanagari: नेमिनाथ) (Sanskrit: नेमिनाथः), also known as Nemi and Ariṣṭanemi (Devanagari: अरिष्टनेमि), is the 22nd tirthankara of Jainism in the present cosmic age (Avasarpini). Along with Mahavira, Pārśvanātha and Rishabhanatha, he is one of the most devotionally revered tirthankaras within the Jain tradition. While his physical historical existence is debated by modern scholars, Indologists such as Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi connect him to the sage Ghora Angirasa from the Vedic Chandogya Upanishad, who instructed Krishna in the virtues of absolute nonviolence (ahimsa). Jain tradition calculates that Neminatha lived tens of thousands of years before the 23rd tirthankara, Pārśvanātha; general accounts cite a gap of 84,000 years, while specific texts like Hemachandra's Trishashtishalakapurusha Charitra calculate the gap at 81,000 years. In Jain theology and literature, Neminatha is celebrated as a contemporary and cousin of the Hindu deity Krishna, born into the Yadu dynasty...

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