Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar?s death anniversary which falls on December 6, is known as the Mahaparinirvana Diwas. Millions of people gather on this day at Dr.Ambedkar’s Samadhi in Mumbai called Chaitya Bhumi to pay homage to the father of the Indian Constitution.
Mahaparinirvana is one of the main goals of Buddhism. It means “nirvana after death”. Nirvana is written in Pali as Parinibbana. Pali comes from the Indian continent. The Buddhist scripture, ” Mahaparinibbana Sutta,” considers Mahaparinirvana as the death of the Buddha at the age of 80.
Dr. Ambedkar died a few days after completing his work The Buddha and His Dhamma. He also converted to Buddhism after years of studying religion. He converted to Buddhism in the year 1956 in Nagpur with 5,00,000 followers. These supporters saw the doctor as their Buddhist leader. He was also considered a leading Buddhist for his contributions to the eradication of untouchables. Therefore, the anniversary of Ambedkar’s death is called Mahaparinirvana Diwas.
He was the first independent Minister of Justice of India and is considered to be the leading architect of the Indian Constitution and thus known as the father of Indian constitution. He was an Indian lawyer, economics scholar, politician and social reformer. He influenced several Buddhist revival movements and fought social discrimination against the Untouchables. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Columbia University and University of London.
In the year 1956 he converted to Buddhism and began mass conversion. In the year 1990 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor.