Vasupujya Ji

Vasupujya is the twelfth tirthankara of the present age. His emblem is the buffalo, and he is shown with a red body colour, one of the few tirthankaras not depicted golden. He is unique in one respect: tradition places all five of his kalyanakas at a single place, Champapuri, which is claimed for no other tirthankara.

Vasupujya Swami and Vasupujya Bhagwan are the usual devotional forms. His name is also his father's.

Lanchana, the emblem: the buffalo. The same in both Digambara and Shvetambara iconography, with no sect variant found. Body colour: red, which sets him apart immediately from the golden tirthankaras. Shown seated or standing in meditation. Yaksha: Kumara, agreed by both traditions. Yakshi: Gandhari in Digambara tradition, Chanda or Chandani in Shvetambara tradition.

He renounced without ever marrying. When his parents wished him to marry he declined, and he took initiation as a kumara, a bachelor prince, rather than after a reign. Most tirthankaras rule first; he did not. His attainment was unusually swift: omniscience came within a month of his initiation, where others took years or decades. A devotional source records that six hundred others took initiation with him.

Father: King Vasupujya, from whom he takes his name. Mother: Queen Jaya Devi, also given as Jaya or Vijaya. Birthplace: Champapuri, identified with modern Champapur near Bhagalpur in Bihar. Dynasty: Ikshvaku.

Champapuri is his place entirely, and this platform carries it. Conception, birth, initiation, omniscience and liberation are all placed there, which makes it a panch-kalyanaka-bhumi and singular among the twenty-four. A thirty-one foot monolithic statue of him was inaugurated there in 2014. He is also enshrined at Jain temples in Kerala, at Alleppey and Ernakulam, and at the Atma Vallabh Jain Smarak near Delhi.

The yaksha is agreed between the traditions; the yakshi's name differs. The emblem, body colour and birthplace agree across both in the sources consulted.