Mahavir Jayanti
The birth of Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, on Chaitra Shukla Trayodashi — the principal Jain festival of the spring.
Where it is kept Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar; wherever Jain communities are settled.
When it falls
Computed from the Moon's elongation from the Sun. The civil day is the one carrying the tithi running at sunrise.
Overview
Chaitra Shukla Trayodashi is the birth of Vardhamana Mahavira, born at Kundagrama near Vaishali in Bihar, the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankara of the present cycle. The day is marked by a rath yatra in which the image is taken in procession, by the abhisheka of the image with milk and water, and by readings from the Kalpa Sutra.
It is a public holiday in India. Jain temples hold the day's main service in the morning; the community observance runs to charitable giving, the release of caged animals and birds, and the funding of animal shelters — acts chosen because they follow from the doctrine rather than from festival custom.
Where it comes from
Mahavira's dates are debated between the two main traditions and among historians: the Svetambara reckoning gives 599–527 BCE, the Digambara 582–510 BCE, and a body of modern scholarship argues for a death nearer 400 BCE. What is not in dispute is that he was an older contemporary or near-contemporary of the Buddha, and that the two movements arose in the same Magadhan region within the same century.
He was born to Siddhartha and Trishala of the Jnatrika clan, renounced at thirty, practised twelve years of austerity, and taught for thirty years thereafter. The Kalpa Sutra, attributed to Bhadrabahu, is the text that carries the biography and is read in the days around the festival.
Why it matters
The five vows Mahavira systematised — ahimsa (non-injury), satya (truth), asteya (not taking what is not given), brahmacharya (chastity) and aparigraha (non-possession) — are the content of the day, and the observance is built to enact rather than commemorate them.
Ahimsa in the Jain formulation is stricter than the general Indian usage: it extends to one-sensed beings, which is the reason for the dietary restrictions and for the timing of meals before dusk.
How to celebrate
- Keep the day vegetarian, and free of root vegetablesPotato, onion, garlic and other roots are avoided because harvesting them kills the whole plant and the organisms in the soil.
- Give to an animal shelter or a panjrapoleThe most direct expression of ahimsa available to a householder, and the customary charity of the day.
- Attend the abhisheka and the reading from the Kalpa SutraThe morning service is the fixed part of the observance.
- Eat before sunsetJain practice avoids eating after dark, and the rule is kept strictly on festival days.
What to avoid
These are not all the same kind of thing. Some are prohibitions from a named text, some are Indian law, some are practical, and some are a confusion worth not repeating. Each item says which it is.
- Do not serve or consume meat, eggs, alcohol or honeyHoney is excluded along with the rest — its collection destroys bee life.
- Do not treat it as a Hindu deity's birthdayMahavira is a Tirthankara, not an avatara or a god; the distinction is doctrinal and matters to the tradition.
- Do not use fireworks or amplified processions near the templeBoth conflict with ahimsa as the tradition applies it to insect and animal life.
Where this comes from
Everything above is either computed by this site’s own panchang engine, or drawn from the works listed here. Where a custom is modern, commercial or contested, the page says so rather than presenting it as ancient.
- Kalpa Sutra, attributed to Bhadrabahu, for the life of Mahavira and the birth narrative.
- Acaranga Sutra, for the account of his practice and teaching.
- The Svetambara and Digambara chronologies, which differ by seventeen years and are both reported here rather than reconciled.
Dates are computed for the place named above and will differ elsewhere. Regional traditions vary; where two reckonings are in use, both are named rather than one being chosen silently.
Other festivals
All festivals, with dates for any year · The calendar on the home page