The Five Kalyanakas
| Kalyanaka | Tithi | Nakshatra |
|---|---|---|
| Chyavana (conception) | Vaishakha Krishna 6 | Purvashadha |
| Janma (birth) | Magha Krishna 12 | Purvashadha |
| Diksha (renunciation) | Magha Krishna 12 | Purvashadha |
| Kevala Jnana (omniscience) | Paush Krishna 14 | Purvashadha |
| Nirvana (liberation) | Vaishakha Krishna 2 | Purvashadha |
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 Purvashadha. 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.
Renounced on His Own Birthday
Hemachandra gives Shitalanatha’s diksha as Magha Krishna 12 — the same tithi as his birth. Not the day after, which is the near-universal pattern, but the very same lunar day.
We flag this because the widely copied Gujarati tables give the day after, and it would have been easy to smooth the difference away. The reading is verbatim in Johnson’s translation, so we show both and let you decide. It is exactly the kind of discrepancy that our calendar research exists to surface rather than hide.
All five of his kalyanakas fall in Purvashadha.
[← Suvidhinatha](/tirthankara/suvidhinatha/) · [All 24](/tirthankara-astrology/) · [Shreyansanatha →](/tirthankara/shreyansanatha/)
His Birth Star, and Yours
Shitalanatha was born under Purvashadha, in Dhanu. 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.