Neminath

Neminatha
22nd Jain Tirthankara
Image of Neminatha at a Jain temple in Bateshwar, Uttar Pradesh
Other names	Arishtanemi
Venerated in	Jainism
Symbol	Shankha
Height	10 bows (98 feet)
Age	1000 years
Color	Black
Parents	Samudravijaya (father) Shivadevi (mother)
Predecessor	Naminatha
Successor	Parshvanatha
Born	Dwarika
Moksha	Mount Girnar

Neminatha (Devanagari: नेमिनाथ) is the twenty-second Tirthankara (ford-maker) in Jainism, an Indian religion. He is also known simply as Nemi, or as Aristanemi which is an epithet of the sun-chariot. Along with Mahavira, Parshvanatha and Rishabhanatha, Neminatha is one of the four Tirthankaras that attract the most devotional worship among the Jains.

According to Jain beliefs, Neminatha lived 84,000 years before the 23rd Tirthankara, Parshvanatha. He is one of the 24 Tirthankaras in Jain theology, in the avasarpini cycle of Jain cosmology. He is a legendary figure, who lived for 1,000 years, and was the youngest son of King Samudravijaya and Queen Shivadevi. He is believed in Jainism to be the cousin of Hindu god Krishna, and his iconography includes the same conch as found with Vishnu. He was born at Sauripura (Dvaraka) in the Harivamsa clan. His birth date is the 5th day of Shravana Shukla in the Hindu calendar. According to Jain mythology, on his wedding day Neminatha heard the cries of animals being killed for the marriage feast, and moved by the sorrow he renounced the world – a scene found in many Jaina artwork. He attained moksha on Girnar Hills near Junagadh, a pilgrimage center for Jains.

According to Long, the Jain legends state that Neminatha taught Krishna the knowledge that he shared with Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, a historic reason that has led Jains to accept, read and cite the Bhagavad Gita as a spiritually important text, celebrate Krishna related festivals and intermingle with Hindus as spiritual cousins.

The name Neminatha consists of two Sanskrit words, Nemi which means "rim, felly of a wheel" or alternatively "thunderbolt", and Natha which means "lord, patron, preotector". According to the Jain text Uttarapurana, as well as the explanation of Hemachandra, it was the ancient Indian deity Indra who named the 22nd Tirthankara as Neminatha, because he viewed the Jina as the "rim of the wheel of dharma". In Svetambara Jain texts, his name Aristanemi came from a dream his mother had when he was in the womb, where she saw a "wheel of Arista jewels".