Lord Padmaprabha, the 6th Tirthankar

 Padmaprabha is the sixth Jain tirthankara of the present avasarpini time cycle. His complexion is red and symbol is lotus. The chaitya tree is chhatra under which he meditated to attain omniscience. 

Padmaprabha, in his earlier incarnation was king Aparajit who ruled over Susima town in the east Videha area within Bharatvarsha. He was a pious and peace-loving person. A religious discourse by Jain monk changed his life. He decided to take initiation from acharya Pihitashrava and embraced ascetism. He practiced deep spiritual penances during his previous births which helped him in this birth to become tirthankara.

Padmaprabha was born in Kaushambi, his father was king Dhara and mother queen Susima. During his growing up in the mother’s womb, the queen had the desire to sleep on the petals of lotus. Thus the child was born with pink glow like lotus and his name was given as Padmaprabha. He was born on the twelfth day of the dark half of moon in the month of Kartik. He grew up as a prince and in due time he got married. After several years, his father handed him the kingdom and himself retired as an ascetic. Padmaprabha ruled with prudence and there was peace and happiness in his kingdom. During this period, he also practiced meditation and followed various spiritual disciplines. One day, during meditation, he glimpsed his past lives. Then he realized the purpose of his incarnation. He handed over his kingdom to the young prince and himself embraced ascetism. He underwent rigorous steps of austerities and penances and finally attained omniscience on the full moon in the month of Chaitra under a chhatra tree. After many years of preaching religion and travelling various places, he became old and finally attained nirvana at Sammed Shikhar on the eleventh day of the dark half of moon in chitra constellation.

Kusuma Dev and Manobega Devi were the male and female messenger deities respectively who appeared in the congregation after omniscience and remained with Lord Padmaprabha till the end.