अनंतनाथ
Anantanatha
The fourteenth Tirthankara.
The fourteenth Tirthankara, born at Ayodhya. The name means the endless one, ananta, and the same word names the observance kept on Anant Chaturdashi, the closing day of Das Lakshana — though the day is given to the virtue of brahmacharya rather than to him.
The bear is his emblem in the Digambara list; some Svetambara sources give the falcon, and the difference is the kind of divergence that shows how iconographic lists were maintained separately for a long time.
Little that is distinctive to him survives beyond that.
Tradition preserves the name, the emblem, the places and the position in the sequence for every Tirthankara, but distinctive narrative for only a handful. For this figure there is little beyond what is above — and saying so is more useful than three invented paragraphs. Where a well-sourced account exists that we have missed, we would like to hear about it.
On the emblem. Taken from the Digambara list, which gives the bear; Svetambara lists commonly give the falcon. An earlier version said porcupine, which matches neither.
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.