tirthankaras/tk-16-shantinatha.jpg · 1200×1600An epidemic was ravaging Hastinapur when the queen conceived. It ended, and the child was named Shanti — peace. He is invoked against illness and calamity to this day, and a Shantinatha temple is often what a community builds when it seeks protection.
He is one of only three Tirthankaras who were also universal emperors (chakravartins) — master of the fourteen jewels and nine treasures, ruler of all six regions of Bharata. What ends his reign is not defeat. Having conquered everything, he goes to carve his name on the Himalayan rock face where emperors record their victories — and finds it already covered, edge to edge, with the names of those who came before and are gone. He draws the conclusion.
The deed that earned him Tirthankara-hood happened many lives earlier, as King Megharatha. A dove fell into his lap, fleeing a hawk. The hawk demanded its food, and asked fairly why mercy to the dove should mean cruelty to the hawk. Megharatha offered his own flesh, equal in weight to the dove. The scale would not balance however much he cut, until he placed his whole body on it. The two birds then revealed themselves as gods, come to test whether his compassion was real.
