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Arahnath is our Eighteenth Tirthankar. In his earlier life, he was King Dhanpati of Sushima city in Mahavideha region. After ruling for a number of years he took Diksha from Samvar Accharya. He had done rigorous penances for a number of lifetimes and had attained a very exalted state of enlightenment. Thus his soul was reincarted as the next Tirthankar. He reincarnated in the Graiveyak dimension of the Gods and then descended into the womb of Queen Mitradevi who was the wife of King Sudarshana of Hastinapur kingdom. The Queen had witnessed fourteen auspicious things in her dream which were dreamt by every Tirthankar's mother.
Queen and king realised that they are the dreams which every tirthankar's mother used to receive and both of them were overjoyed to hear that the child to be born would be the next Tirthankar. The Queen soon thereafter gave birth to a son on the tenth day of the Krishna Paksh of the month of Margashirsh according to the Jain calendar. The Queen had also dreamt of a gem studded wheel(Arah) and hence the child was named Arahnath. Time passed by and the boy grew up and they got him married. The King then handed over the Kingdom to his son and retired to the forest to practice spiritual disciplines for betterment of his life. Arahnath ruled the Kingdom wisely. Soon the disc weapon ‘Chakra’ appeared in his armoury and he proceeded to conquer the kingdom with his mighty army. It is said that he conquered the six continents and in his attendance were thirty two thousand Kings, thus he became a Chakravarti.
After a long and successful period of time, one day contemplating on the changing seasons a sudden sense of detachment came over him. He decided to renounce everything and become an ascetic. Wandering as an ascetic he stood in meditation under a mango tree in the Sahasramra jungle outside Hastinapur and achieved Omniscience.
Hen then began preaching about attachment and aversion to worldly desires and methods to conquer delusion and gain release from worldly bondage. He urged his followers to practice non violence and compassion and focus on the true goal of life i.e liberation. He explained the concepts of Right Action, Right Thinking and Right Conduct. Finally at Sammed Shikhar he attained Nirvana . His followers included the sixth and seventh Vasudevas and Baldevas and the eight Chakravarti(Subhum). He is associated with nanadavarta emblem.
