Ajitanatha Ji

Ajitanatha is the second tirthankara of the present age. His emblem is the elephant. He attained liberation on Mount Shikharji, where the shrine of Siddhavar Koot enshrines his footprints rather than an image.

Ajitnath, and Ajita, the unconquered, from which the name comes.

Lanchana, the emblem: the elephant (gaja), at the pedestal. Body colour: golden. Found both seated in dhyanamudra and standing in kayotsarga. Associated tree: saptaparna. Yaksha: Mahayaksha, agreed by both traditions. Yakshi: Rohini in Digambara tradition, Ajita in Shvetambara tradition. A specialist iconographic source instead names the attendant Ajitabala, six-armed, close to but not identical with the Shvetambara name. That variance is recorded rather than resolved.

The name has two explanations, and they differ by sect. Shvetambara tradition tells that while he was in the womb his mother, Queen Vijaya, became so invincible that she repeatedly beat King Jitashatru at dice, and so the child was named Ajita, the unconquered. The Digambara Uttarapurana explains the name differently: that he could not be defeated by sins, nor by rival teachers. After attaining omniscience he established the fourfold monastic order. His liberation was on Mount Shikharji, on the fifth day of the bright half of Chaitra, together with a thousand ascetics.

Father: Jitashatru. Mother: Vijaya, also given as Vijayadevi. Birthplace: Ayodhya, also called Saketa, of the Ikshvaku solar dynasty. Note that Ayodhya is the birthplace of both the first and the second tirthankara.

Principal places: Shikharji, at the Siddhavar Koot shrine; Taranga in Gujarat, the great Shvetambara temple built under the Chaulukya king Kumarapala, which is his principal temple and is carried on this platform; and the Chaurasi Digambara temple at Mathura.

The yakshi's name differs by sect, as does the name of the chief of nuns, Prakubja in Digambara accounts and Falgu in Shvetambara ones. The etymology of his own name differs too, as described above. Two confusion risks worth knowing. Ajita is also a name of Maitreya, the future Buddha. And Ajita Kesakambali was a sixth-century BCE materialist philosopher, entirely unrelated. Neither has any connection to this tirthankara.