Lord Aranath, the 18th Tirthankar

 Lord Aranath is the eighteenth Jain tirthankara of the present avasarpini time cycle. Besides being a tirthankara, he is the eighth Chakravarti and thirteenth Kamadeva according to Jain mythology. His complexion is golden and symbol is fish. The chaitya tree under which he got omniscience is amba.

In his previous birth, he was king Dhanapati, living in the city Susuna in the east Videha of Jambudvipa. During his period, people were free from quarrels and were friendly with each other. After ruling many years, king Dhanapati decided to leave the palace and accept mendicancy. He became the disciple of Muni Samvara. Guarding his vows strictly, practicing severe penance, he travelled many places. He acquired the body making karma of a Tirthakrt by the sthanas, devotion to the Arhats etc. In course of time, he died and became a powerful god in heaven.

Aranath was born in Hastinapur in the Ikshvaku dynasty. His father was king Sudarshan and mother queen Mitra devi. When Dhanapati’s soul completed its life in heaven, it descended into the womb of the queen. On the tenth day of the bright half of moon in Revati constellation, the queen gave birth to a son. King Sudarshan celebrated his son’s birth festival and selected his name to be Ara because the queen had seen a spade of wheel (ara) in her dream during her pregnancy. He grew up and got married at proper age. Soon he became the ruler of his kingdom and fulfilled his father’s wishes. Aranath took four hundred years to conquer the small states and brought them under the name of Bharatvarsha. In this way he became Chakravarti. After ruling for many years, he decided to quit and accepted mendicancy. It took three years of hard penance (tapa) which helped him to achieve omniscience. After attaining omniscience, samavasarana was organised where Lord Aranath delivered a sermon on anger (raga) and hatred (dvesa).

Anger and hatred are the two very powerful emotions of all people and they are the root cause of all pain and sufferings. They are the two faults or vices which goes side by side affecting the mind of a person. Like and dislike, love and hatred, attraction and repulsion are the various flowing currents which appear in the mind of a person. All these emotions are the key factors which bind a man to the eternal wheel of life cycle, viz., birth and death.

When time for emancipation came, Lord Aranath went to Mt. Sammet with thousand monks and commenced fasting for one month till death. His soul went to the eternal abode and attained nirvana.

In his congregation after omniscience, both male and female messenger deities appeared as Sasandevatas whose name were Yaksendra and Dharini respectively.