Shantinatha Ji

Shantinatha, the lord of peace, is the sixteenth tirthankara of the present age. His emblem is the deer. He is one of only three tirthankaras who were also Chakravartins, universal emperors, before renouncing, and one of the same three who held a triple status: tirthankara, chakravartin, and Kamadeva, of supreme beauty. He was born at Hastinapur.

Shanti, peace, and the Lord of Peace. In Shvetambara usage his yakshi Nirvani is also called Shanti-devi.

Lanchana, the emblem: the deer, usually carved beneath the legs of the image. Body colour: golden, seated or standing in meditation, with the shrivatsa mark on the chest and downcast eyes. Yaksha and yakshi, by sect: Kimpurusha and Mahamanasi in Digambara tradition; Garuda and Nirvani in Shvetambara tradition. The variance here is on both attendants, not just one.

The pigeon and the falcon is the story most often told of him, and it belongs to a previous birth. As King Megharatha he gave shelter to a pigeon fleeing a falcon. When the falcon claimed its rightful food, the king offered to cut from his own body flesh equal to the bird's weight. It is the tradition's sharpest illustration of ahimsa, that non-violence is not passive but costly. As Chakravartin he held the fourteen jewels and nine treasures and ruled six divisions of the earth in what tradition calls a golden age of justice, and then renounced it, having understood the transience of worldly power. He attained omniscience after sixteen years of asceticism, and liberation at Shikharji.

Father: King Vishvasena. Mother: Queen Achira. Wife before renunciation: Yashomati. Birthplace: Hastinapur, of the Kuru-Ikshvaku line.

Shantinatha is among the most widely enshrined of all tirthankaras. Principal places on this platform: the Shantinatha temple at Khajuraho, eleventh century and Chandela-built, with a fifteen-foot standing image; Hastinapur, his birthplace, where he is the principal image of the Digambara Bada Mandir; Shikharji, his liberation site; and the temples at Kumbhariya and in Jaisalmer Fort. Beyond these, the Shantinatha temples at Deogarh, Jinanathapura and Halebidu are major monuments of the Pratihara and Hoysala periods.

The yaksha and yakshi names both differ by sect. No difference in emblem, colour or birthplace was found. The real confusion risk is internal to Jainism. Shantinatha, Kunthunatha and Aranatha are consecutive, all born at Hastinapur, all of the same line, all chakravartins, all golden, and their biographies run closely parallel. They are easily conflated, and the platform carries each separately for that reason.