MahÄvÄ«ra ā the 24th TÄ«rthaį¹ kara's mokį¹£a-bhÅ«mi at PÄvÄpurÄ«
This entry honours the self-representation of Jain tradition. India's sacred landscape includes hundreds of traditions beyond the Brahminical-Vedic canon ā Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, Sufi Muslim, Zoroastrian, tribal Gondi/Bhil/Khasi, and many more. Each has its own cosmology, theology, ethical system, and sacred geography. Each deserves first-person recognition, not assimilation.
BhagavÄn MahÄvÄ«ra (599ā527 BCE) ā the 24th and last TÄ«rthaį¹ kara, a senior contemporary of the Buddha, was born at Kuį¹įøagrÄma (near VaiÅÄlÄ«) and attained NirvÄį¹a (mokį¹£a) at PÄvÄpurÄ« on the night of DÄ«pÄvalÄ« (KÄrtika Kį¹į¹£į¹a AmÄvasyÄ, 527 BCE). This night is the Jain DÄ«pÄvalÄ« ā Jains light lamps to commemorate the extinguishing of MahÄvÄ«ra's light and the birth of a new era. The Jal-Mandir at PÄvÄpurÄ« stands in the middle of a lotus-lake; the temple's marble footprint marks the exact spot of MahÄvÄ«ra's last discourse and nirvÄį¹a. His principal disciple Gautama Gaį¹adhara attained kevala-jƱÄna (omniscience) the following morning.
Worship in the Jain tradition follows its own ritual grammar ā this is not a variant of Brahminical-Hindu worship. Key elements:
India is home to:
Catalogging only the pan-Indic Brahminical pantheon would miss most of India.
This entry draws on: the tradition's own textual and oral sources, scholarly ethnographies (Kosambi, Radhakrishnan, P. V. Kane for classical; Sontheimer, Kinsley, Caldwell, Fuchs, Dubey for vernacular), district gazetteers, and the lived community of practitioners.
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