Mahavir Jayanti

About Mahavir Jayanti

Significance

Mahavir Jayanti, kept by Jains as Mahavira Janma Kalyanak, celebrates the birth of Vardhamana Mahavira, the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankara of the present age, traditionally dated to 599 BCE. The Kalpa Sutra, the Shvetambara text that recounts the lives of the Tirthankaras, relates that he was born to King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala at Kundagrama near Vaishali on the thirteenth day of the bright half of Chaitra, and that his mother had seen auspicious dreams foretelling his birth: fourteen in the Shvetambara account, sixteen in the Digambara.

At about thirty Mahavira renounced the household, practised austerities for twelve and a half years and attained kevala jnana, omniscience, after which he taught the path of ahimsa (non-violence), satya, asteya, brahmacharya and aparigraha for some thirty years. His nirvana at Pavapuri is remembered on Diwali, and the Vira Nirvana era is counted from it. Shvetambara and Digambara traditions differ on some details of his life, such as whether he married.

How and where it is observed

The day is the principal Jain festival of the spring, kept by both Shvetambara and Digambara communities across India and abroad, and it is a gazetted holiday of the Government of India. Large gatherings take place at sites linked with Mahavira such as Pavapuri and the Vaishali region in Bihar, at the Shri Mahavirji temple in Rajasthan, which holds a well-known fair at this time, and at the pilgrimage hills of Palitana and Girnar in Gujarat.

Rituals

Temples perform abhisheka of the image of Mahavira, often re-enacting the bathing of the newborn Tirthankara by the gods, and a cradle (palna) is rocked in celebration. Processions (rath yatras or shobha yatras) carry the image through the streets, monks and nuns give discourses on his teaching, and the account of his birth is read. Charity is central: gifts to the poor, feeding, and support for animal shelters (jivadaya) express the teaching of non-violence.

How the date is fixed

Mahavir Jayanti is Chaitra Shukla Trayodashi, the same month name in the Amanta and Purnimanta calendars. Following the Jain panchang convention, it is shown on the day on which Trayodashi prevails at sunrise (udaya tithi); when it prevails at two sunrises the first day is shown, and when it touches no sunrise, the day that contains it. Shvetambara and Digambara calendars apply their own rules when the tithi is lost (kshaya) or doubled (vriddhi), and in such years can differ by a day; follow your community calendar.

Sources

• Kalpa Sutra, Life of Mahavira, tr. Hermann Jacobi, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 22 (1884)
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Mahavira
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Kalpa-sutra
• Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India: holiday lists for Central Government offices

Customs differ between regions, communities and families; this description is background, not a prescription. The date above is calculated by the rule shown on this page.