The Five Kalyanakas
| Kalyanaka | Tithi | Nakshatra |
|---|---|---|
| Chyavana (conception) | Kartika Krishna 12 | Chitra |
| Janma (birth) | Shravana Shukla 5 | Chitra |
| Diksha (renunciation) | Shravana Shukla 6 | Chitra |
| Kevala Jnana (omniscience) | Ashvina Krishna Amavasya | Chitra |
| Nirvana (liberation) | Ashadha Shukla 8 | Chitra |
Months are given in the purnimanta convention, the one Hemachandra uses. For a Krishna-paksha date the Gujarati amanta name is one month earlier; Shukla dates are the same in both.
All five of his kalyanakas fall in Chitra. The first four sharing one nakshatra is true of every Tirthankara without exception; about ten then shift for the nirvana, and he is not among them. See the kalyanaka calendar.
The Wedding He Turned Away From
Neminatha’s story is the most famous act of conscience in the tradition.
He was riding in procession to marry Princess Rajimati when he heard the cries of animals penned nearby, gathered to be slaughtered for the wedding feast. He asked what the sound was. Told the truth, he turned the procession around, renounced everything, and went to Mount Girnar as an ascetic. Rajimati, refusing to marry anyone else, later took initiation herself and is honoured in her own right.
It is, as far as we can find, one of the earliest recorded acts of walking away from a celebration on the grounds of what it would cost other beings. Jains who keep a vegetarian wedding feast are keeping his story.
Krishna’s First Cousin
Neminatha was the first cousin of Krishna: his father Samudravijaya and Krishna’s father Vasudeva were brothers. The Jain Harivamsha Purana (783 CE) tells the whole Yadava saga as part of his life, and Jain tradition holds that Krishna’s soul will one day become a Tirthankara of the next cosmic age.
This is the strongest single illustration of the point our Claim Your Story mission makes: Jainism did not deny the figures of the wider Indian tradition. It claimed them as family.
All five of his kalyanakas fall in Chitra. His omniscience came on a new moon at Girnar, and his nirvana there too, with 536 sadhus.
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His Birth Star, and Yours
Neminatha was born under Chitra, in Kanya. If that is your janma nakshatra too, the tradition offers a devotional kinship: his kalyanaka days, his story, his image. Kinship, not destiny.
Our free kundali tool computes your janma nakshatra and tells you directly which Tirthankaras share it. The complete cross-verified table is at the birth stars of the 24 Tirthankaras.
Sources. Kalyanaka dates and nakshatras from Hemachandra's Trishashti-Shalaka-Purusha-Charitra (Johnson translation), read chapter by chapter, with the Kalpasutra cross-checked where it covers this Tirthankara. Biographical and iconographic details follow the standard references. Where the sects differ, both readings are shown; where a source does not state a value, we say so rather than infer it. Corrections are seva: tell us.