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Jaina-Rupa-Mandana Immadi-Bukka, a minister of this ruler, constructed a caityålaya at Kurnool enshrining an image of Kunthu Tirthaikara. 218 Images of Kunthu are found at places like Sravana Belagola, Müdabidri and Veņūr where images of all the 24 Tirthańkaras are set up in some shrines. These shrines are often known as Tirthankara Basadis.
In Tamil Nadu also, the fact that images of all the 24 Tirthankaras singly or in group were installed by donors is known from "the appellation caturvimšati-sthapaka of the donor Vasudeva-siddhānta-bhatarar met with in a grantha inscription near a niche containing the elevation of a Jinalaya with a sculpture of Supārsvanatha on a boulder in the rock called Nagamalai at Veralur in Madhurantakam Taluk, Chingleput district. In a few cases only the names of the Tirthankaras are mentioned in the inscriptions, like Vardhamana from Tirupparuttikunram, Vimala-Sri-Arya-Tirtha (i.e., Vimalanātha) from Kil-Sattamangalam, Pārsvanātha from Aivarmalai and Ponnur, Kunthunātha from Karandai and Adiśvara from Ponnur."219
In Cell no. 33. Vimala Vasahi, Abu, there is an image of Kunthunätha installed as the main image (mülanayaka) in the cell. The image was installed in samvat 1394 (inscription no. 117 of Muni Jayantavijaya). In Cal! 2 90 image of Kunthu was installed in samvat 1245 (inscr. no. 134 of Jayanta vijaya).
18. EIGHTEENTH TIRTHANKARA: ARANATHA
Aranātha, the eighteenth Tirthankara, was the son of king Sudarśana and queen Mitrā or Mitrasenä of the city of Hastinapura in the Kurujangala country. He was born in the Puşya naksatra according to Uttarapurāna and in the Revati nakşatra according to Trişastiśaläkāpuruşacarita. He descended upon this earth from the Jayanta Vimāna according to the Digambara belief and from Sarvarthasiddhi Vimāna according to the Svetāmbaras.220
Since his mother saw in a dream a spoke of wheel (ara) while the Jina was in his mother's womb, the father of the Jina named him Ara.221 Golden in complexion, Aranātha had the cognizance or dhvaja of Nandyavarta symbol according to the Svetambaras and fish according to the Digambaras.222 According to Tiloyapanpatti, the symbol was Tagara-kusuma 223 Ara became a Cakravarti emperor.
Aranātha obtained kevalajñāna while meditating under a mango-tree. Kumbha was his chief ganadhara and Yakşilā the chief äryikā according to all Digambara texts except the Tiloyapanpatti which gives Kunthusenā for Yakşilă. According to the Samavāyānga sutra, they were Kumbha and Puspavati respectively. Ramachandran notes Raksila for Puspavati.
Ara obtained nirvāṇa on Mt. Sammeta. Kubera and Jaya were his attendant śasana devatās according to the Tiloyapannatti, Khendra and Ajitā according to other Digambara traditions and Yakşendra (or Yakseśa or Yakşet) and Dhariņi according to Svetambara writers.
Subhūma Cakravarti lived in the time of Aranātha. Jaina versions of the Parasurama story are available in the accounts of this Cakravarti. Nandisena and Pundarika, the fifth Baladeva and Vasudeva (Näräyapa) of Jaina mythology also lived in this age.
Jinaprabha sūri notes that tirthas of Kunthu and Ara exist at the confluence of the Gangā and the Yamuna.224 This suggests that temples dedicated to these two Jinas existed at Prayāga (Allahabad) and/or Kauśāmbi nearby.
A fragmentary pedestal of a Tirthaikara image from Kankali Tilā, Mathura, preserved in the Lucknow Museum (Mu. no. J.20) was supposed to have belonged to a sculpture of Aranātha since the words Arhat Nandyavarta were read in the inscription on this pedestal. It was argued that since Nandyāvarta is regarded as the lañchana of Aranátha, the pedestal belonged to an image of Aranatha. K.D. Bajpai corrected the reading of the inscription and showed that the Arhat Munisuvrata is referred to 225 Bajpai's reading is correct. I have checked it and am convinced of it. Besides, the earlier interpretation of naming a Tirthankara from his lañchana has no support in Jaina traditions. Again only the Svetambaras give Nandyāvarta as the cognizance of Aranātha while the Digambaras believe that fish was his lañchana. The finds from
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