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According to Jainism, Anantnath is our Fourteenth Tirthankar of the present age known as Avasarpini.Anantnath in his previous life was King of Arishta town in Dhatkikhand region. He led a highly pious and religious life and use to keep himself busy in meditation and use to mainly focus on spiritual practices. Later he took Diksha from Acharya Chitraaksh and then, he had attained a very high state of spiritual enlightenment due to which he was borned as the fourtnnenth Tirthankar. His soul reincarnated in the Pushpottar dimension of the Gods after which it descended into the womb of Queen Suyasha Devi who was the wife of King Simhasen of Ayodhya region. She had dreamt of fourteen auspicious dreams which every Tirtahankar's mother use to dream of.
When the King heard this he was sure that his child is not an ordinary child as this are the signs of a Tithankar and was very overjoyed. Both of them felt blessed and thanked God for their good fortune. And then slowly, time passed and on the thirteenth day of the dark half of the month of Vaisakh (according to Jain calendar) queen gave birth to a son. During the pregnancy the Queen had dreamt of a long strand of beads whose ends were not visible. During this period the King’s power also increased. This was attributed to the soul in the womb who was named Anant (means endless). As time passed he grew up and got married. And then the king decided to hand over the Kingdom to him and retire to the forest in pursuit of spiritual practices. Anantnath was a good and compassionate King who ruled his kingdom wisely and also took care of his subjects and also was deeply religious and continued his prayers and meditation practices. Kings from nearby kingdoms came to him when they needed help regarding any problem and he always helped them to solve their problems.
After ruling the Kingdom wisely for a number of years Anantnath began to feel restless. And one day in his meditation he saw all his past lives and realised the reason for his this birth and the true goal of his life. A deep sense of detachment came over him and then he decided to give up his Kingdom and embrace ascetism. Along with him many members of the royal family and his subjects also embraced ascetism. After undergoing severe penances under an Ashoka tree he achieved Omniscience on the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month of Vaisakh(according to Jainism).
He began preaching and teaching his followers the principles of Jain philosophy, the principles of Right Conduct, Right Thinking and Right action. He taught them compassion and non violence. He underwent deep spiritual penances and on the fifth day of the bright half of the month of Chaitra(according to Jain Calender) he attained Nirvana at Sammed Shikhar. He is associated with falcon emblen and according to Digamber his symbol is porcupine.
