tirthankaras/tk-22-neminatha.jpg · 1200×1600A Yadava prince and first cousin of Krishna and Balarama — their fathers were brothers. The Jain Harivamsha places him inside the whole story of Mathura and Dwarka: the migration west under pressure from Jarasandha, the building of Dwarka on the coast below Girnar, and Krishna as the ninth Vasudeva.
His renunciation is one of the best-loved scenes in Jain literature. He is betrothed to Rajimati (Rajul), daughter of King Ugrasena. As the wedding procession approaches the bride's home, he hears animals crying and asks why. They are penned for the wedding feast. He turns his chariot around. Those animals are caged, he says, and so are we. He gives away his possessions for a year, then takes initiation outside Dwarka, pulling out his hair in five handfuls. Rajimati, still dressed as a bride, renounces too and becomes a leading nun.
The Uttaradhyayana Sutra gives them a second scene. Caught in the rain on the way up Girnar, Rajimati shelters in a cave to dry her robes. Rathanemi — Nemi's brother, now also a monk — is already there, is overcome, and approaches her. She neither panics nor flees. She tells him plainly that one who returns to what he has renounced has fallen lower than the life he left. He is restored and returns to his practice — a nun holding a monk to his vows, in the canon itself.
Neminatha attains omniscience after fifty-four days on Girnar and is liberated there. Girnar remains one of the holiest Jain pilgrimages.
