page_title: Deekshabhoomi
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Deekshabhoomi / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Ambedkar delivering speech during conversion.
context_page_description: Deekshabhoomi is a sacred monument of Navayana Buddhism located at Nagpur city in Maharashtra state of India; where the architect of the Indian Constitution, B. R. Ambedkar, embraced Buddhism with approximately 600,000 his followers mainly sheduled caste peoples on Ashoka Vijaya Dashami on 14 October 1956. Ambedkar revivaled Buddhism in India. Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism is deeply significant for millions of people in India.
  Deekshabhoomi is in Nagpur, Maharashtra, a location regarded as a sacred place, prernabhoomi of social revolution being atheist and a preparations for social actions against class conflicts, discrimination, inequality also the first pilgrimage center of Ambedkarite Buddhism in India. Millions of pilgrims visit Deekshabhoomi everday and every year, especially on Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Din ie Samrat Ashoka vijaya dashmi and 14 October, the memorial day when B.R.Ambedkar embraced and converted to Buddhism here. His final religious act was to embrace Buddhism and visioned to make India The Buddhist nation A prabuddha Bharat Today, the largest stupa in the world is erected in his memory at the site.
context_section_description: Dr.Ambedkar had declared in 1935 that although he was born as a Hindu, he would not die as one, as conversion was the solution to abandon the caste system. After this declaration and having extensively and exhaustively studied the doctrines of all the major world religions, Dr.Ambedkar would choose Buddhism for himself and his followers.
  Buddhism was 2,550 years old in 1956, so it was a notable year of celebration for the Buddhist religious world globally and 14 October was the traditional date of conversion of Emperor Ashoka, the great Indian Buddhist Monarch and the day is celebrated as Ashok Vijaya Dashmi. He selected Nagpur for his conversion ceremony, as he explained in his speech at that occasion, because Nagpur was the homeland of 'Nag' people who embraced Buddhism, supported it with great efforts in its early period, and propagated it throughout India. Ground near the Ramdaspeth area in Nagpur was selected for the ceremony.
  On 14 October 1956, Dr.Ambedkar and his wife took the oath of Three Jewels and Five Precepts from the Burmese monk Mahasthavir Chandramani from Kushinagar. Dr.Ambedkar then gave the oath of Three Jewels, Five Precepts, and 22 Vows to his thousands of followers. In this way, Nagpur became the birthplace of Neo Buddhist movement.
  Dr.Ambedkar died on 6 December 1956, one and a half months after the Deeksha ceremony. However, this ceremonial conversion continued after his death, converting 15-20 million by March 1959. After his death the 'Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Deekshabhoomi Smarak Samiti' (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Deekshabhoomi Memorial committee) was organized for the management of Deekshabhoomi. The committee decided to build a stupa at the place as a monument of that ceremony and a mass conversion of people to Buddhism. Arya Bhadant Surai Sasai is the president of the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Deekshabhoomi Memorial committee, Nagpur.
caption: Ambedkar delivering speech during mass conversion in Deekshabhoomi, Nagpur, 14 October 1956.
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