Sumatinatha

Sumatinatha
Image of Sumatinatha at a Jain temple
Predecessor	Abhinandananatha
Successor	Padmaprabha
Symbol	Goose
Height	300 bows (900 meters)
Age	4,000,000 purva (282.24 Quintillion Years Old)
Tree	Priyangu
Color	Golden
Genealogy
Born	10222 years ago Ayodhya
Died	Shikharji
Parents	Megharatha (father) Sumangala (mother)
Dynasty	Ikshvaku

Sumatinatha was the fifth Jain Tirthankara of the present age (Avasarpini). Sumatinatha was born to Kshatriya King Megha (Meghaprabha) and Queen Mangala (Sumangala) at Ayodhya in the Ikshvaku dynasty. His birth date was the eighth day of the Vaisakha shukla month of the Hindu calendar.

Tradition

In his previous incarnation, Sumatinatha was an Indra in the Jayanta Vimana. According to Jain beliefs, he became a siddha, a liberated soul which has destroyed all of its karma.

Adoration

Svayambhustotra by Acharya Samantabhadra is the adoration of twenty-four tirthankaras. Its five slokas (aphorisms) are dedicated to Sumatinātha. Last of which is:

The attributes of existence and non-existence in an object are valid from particular standpoints; the validity of the statement is contingent on the speaker’s choice, at that particular moment, of the attribute that he wishes to bring to the fore as the other attribute is relegated to the background. O Lord Sumatinātha, you had thus explained the reality of substances; may your adoration augment my intellect!

See also

• God in Jainism
• Arihant (Jainism)
• Jainism and non-creationism
• Ikshvaku dynasty

References

• Tukol, T. K. (1980), Compendium of Jainism, Dharwad: University of Karnataka
• Shah, Umakant Premanand (1987), Jaina-Rupa Mandana: Jaina Iconography, vol. 1, India: Shakti Malik Abhinav Publications, ISBN 81-7017-208-X
• Jain, Vijay K. (2015), Acarya Samantabhadra’s Svayambhustotra: Adoration of The Twenty-four Tirthankara, Vikalp Printers, ISBN 9788190363976, Non-Copyright