अजितनाथ
Ajitanatha
The second Tirthankara. His name means "unconquered".
The second Tirthankara, born at Ayodhya — the city tradition gives as the seat of the dynasty Rishabhadeva founded, and as the birthplace of five of the twenty-four.
His name means unconquered, and tradition relates that his mother could not be beaten at dice while carrying him — a small domestic story of the kind that attaches to these figures and survives precisely because it is memorable. As with several of the early Tirthankaras, the name is explained by something that happened to a parent rather than by anything he did: the tradition is recording that the significance was recognised before the life began.
The elephant is his emblem. He attained nirvana at Shikharji, with twenty of the twenty-four — the hill in Jharkhand that is, on that count alone, the most significant Jain pilgrimage site there is.
This figure is known from tradition; there is no independent historical evidence. That is a statement about the record, not about the tradition.
Written for Jain Times. Corrections are welcome — see sources and licences.