tirthankaras/tk-17-kunthunatha.jpg · 1200×1600The sixth universal emperor and seventeenth Tirthankara. His name is the remarkable thing. In Jain usage, kunthu is a tiny insect — among the smallest embodied beings in the scriptures, named in monastic rules as the creature a monk must take care not to crush when sitting, walking or setting down a bowl.
A Tirthankara named after the smallest creature in the scriptures is the doctrine of the equal worth of every soul compressed into a single word: the same name serves for the being you cannot see and for the emperor of the world. The mouth-cloth, the soft whisk, filtered water and not eating after dark all make sense from here.
