Lord Sumatinath, the 5th Tirthankar

 Lord Sumatinath is the 5th Jain tirthankara of the avasarpini time cycle. His complexion is golden and symbol is goose. The chaitya tree under which he attained omniscience is shala tree.

Sumatinath in his previous incarnation was named Purushsinha. He was the son of king Vijaysen and queen Sudarsana in the city of Sankhapura in East Videha within Bharatvarsha. Once Prince Purushsinha had the opportunity to listen Acharya Vinaynandan while he was explaining the religion to his followers. The lectures of the acharya impressed him and inspired him to realise the purpose of life. He sensed detachment from the physical world and became motivated towards spiritualism. He attained a high level of spiritual enlightenment by practicing rigorous rules of penances. This helped his soul to take birth as the would be tirthankara. 

Sumatinath was born as son of queen Mangala and king Meghrath of Ayodhya on the eighth day of the bright half of moon in magha constellation in the month of Vaisakh. Soon his soul was in the womb, there was an atmosphere of love and peace everywhere and his name was decided to be Sumati meaning right thinking and wise. When Sumati became grownup, he got married and became king after his father renounced his post. Sumatinath ruled for long time bringing peace and happiness among his subjects. Later, he decided to take initiation and became ascetic. He practiced rigorous penances for twenty years and on the eleventh day of the bright half of the moon in the month of Chaitra, he attained omniscience under a shala tree. He preached religion and his experiences and feelings to his followers while travelling from villages to towns. He gave discourses on human existence and their duties in the society, the path of right living, right conduct and right knowledge. On the ninth day of the bright half of moon in the month of Chaitra, he attained nirvana at Sammed shikhar with many other monks.

The Lord’s male messenger deity or Sasandevata was Tumburu and Mahakali was the Lord’s female messenger-deity.

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