Pushpadanta, also called Suvidhinatha, is the ninth Tirthankara of the present age, and one of the ford-makers known by two names in the tradition. His emblem is the makara, a crocodile-like water creature of Indian iconography. He is venerated as a liberated soul and omniscient teacher among the twenty-four ford-makers who reveal the path to liberation.
Jain tradition assigns him a place in the remote sacred antiquity of the avasarpini, before documented history, and holds that he attained final liberation at Sammeta Shikhar (Shikharji). Beyond his two names, his emblem, and the shared framework of the five auspicious life-events, the sources preserve little narrative particular to him.
The double naming, Pushpadanta in some texts and Suvidhinatha in others, is not unique to him: several Tirthankaras carry more than one traditional name across the Svetambara and Digambara canons, a variation the tradition treats as a difference of usage rather than a disputed identity. His makara emblem, a composite water-creature of Indian iconography combining features of crocodile, fish and elephant, belongs to a set of animal and object emblems that Jain art uses specifically to distinguish otherwise near-identical seated or standing images of the twenty-four ford-makers from one another.