Mahaparinirvan Day
- On December 6, the death anniversary of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is celebrated all over India.
- This date itself is called Mahaparinirvan day. Every year on this day, lakhs of people visit the Samadhi of Bhimrao Ambedkar in Mumbai, which is called Chaitya Bhoomi.
Mahaparinirvan Day
- Mahaparinirvana is one of the major goals of Buddhism. It means “Nirvana after death”. Parinirvana is written as Parinirvana in Pali.
- Pali language is the native language of the Indian subcontinent. In the Buddhist text “Mahaparinirvana Sutta”, the death of Lord Buddha at the age of 80 is considered as the original Mahaparinirvana.
Reason for celebrating Ambedkar’s death anniversary as Mahaparinirvan Divas
- Bhimrao Ambedkar died within a few days of completing “The Buddha and his Dhamma”. Also, they converted to Buddhism after studying the religion together for years.
- He converted to Buddhism on 14 October 1956 in Nagpur with five lakh supporters. These supporters considered Bhimrao Ambedkar as their Buddhist leader.
- In addition, he was considered a Buddhist guru for his contribution to the eradication of untouchability. Thus, Ambedkar’s death anniversary is marked as Mahaparinirvan Diwas.
Bhimrao Ambedkar
- Ambedkar is called the father of the Constitution of India. He was the first Law and Justice Minister of independent India and is regarded as the chief architect of the Constitution of India.
- He was an Indian economist, jurist, social reformer and politician.
- He inspired many Dalit Buddhist movements and fought against social discrimination towards untouchables. In 1990, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour.
Source – The Hindu
