Tīrthaṅkara
One who builds the crossing. Twenty-four per half-cycle in each Bharat and Airāvat, and a continuous supply in every Mahāvideha.
A tīrtha is a ford across a river; the river is rebirth. A Tīrthaṅkara is not a god and does not save anyone. Having attained omniscience, they establish a fourfold community of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen, and teach, and then reach liberation like anyone else.
Five moments in such a life are marked as kalyāṇakas: conception, birth, renunciation, omniscience, liberation. At the birth the gods carry the infant to Mount Meru for the consecration.
Where they can appear is strictly bounded by geography. Only in a land of action, and within Bharat Kṣetra only in the Ārya Khaṇḍa, and only during the third and fourth aras of a half-cycle. In Mahāvideha Kṣetra the condition never lapses, so there is always one — which is why Sīmandhar Svāmī matters to people living in the fifth ara here.
Measurements and counts
| Per half-cycle in Bharat | 24 |
|---|---|
| Auspicious events | 5 kalyāṇakas |
| Consecrated at | Meru's summit |
| Living now | 20, all in Mahāvideha |
| Maximum possible at once | 170 |
| A god? | no — a liberated human |