Kundalpur (Nalanda)

The village in Nalanda district, Bihar, identified in Digambara Jain tradition as the birthplace of Mahavira — against the Svetambara claim that he was born at Kundagrama near Vaishali 100 kilometres north. The two sects locate the key moment of the Jain calendar at two different places as part of the broader Digambara-Svetambara doctrinal split that hardened in the 1st century CE. The Kundalpur site has a Nandishvara Dvipa model-shrine, a Mahavira temple and a small lake. Both villages have continuous Jain pilgrimage traffic from the respective sects. Kundagrama's claim is older in the extant Jain texts; Kundalpur's is maintained by the Digambara acharyas of Nalanda.