Place · Buddhist conversion ground · India
Deekshābhūmi, Nagpur
Also known as Ambedkar conversion, Ambedkar — Deekshabhoomi, Nagpur 1956
The ground in Nagpur, Maharashtra, where on 14 October 1956 — Dhammachakra Pravartan Day — Dr B.R. Ambedkar and about 365,000 Dalit followers took the three refuges and five precepts of Theravada Buddhism from the monk Mahasthavira Chandramani, publicly renouncing Hinduism. The event seeded the Navayana Buddhist movement among Dalits, which has grown to over seven million adherents by the 2011 census. Ambedkar died six weeks later on 6 December 1956. The site, administered by the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Smarak Samiti, holds the Deekshabhumi stupa (opened 2001) and draws over a million pilgrims each 14 October for the annual Dhammachakra celebration.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Modern Navayana Buddhist tradition
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 21.130, 79.070
Worth knowing
On 14 October 1956 Ambedkar and some half a million followers took the Buddhist refuges here.
Connections (1)
- Monastic foundationB. R. Ambedkar
Ambedkar converted at Nagpur on 14 October 1956 with several hundred thousand Mahārs, having announced twenty years earlier that he would not die a Hindu. The twenty-two vows he administered are the sharpest public renunciation of caste ever made, and he died seven weeks afterwards. The stupa built on the site is among the largest in Asia, and the conversion is re-enacted there every year on the anniversary by tens of thousands of people.
On these journeys
Sources
Deekshabhoomi — Navayana Buddhism
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