આ પૃષ્ઠ હજી ગુજરાતીમાં ઉપલબ્ધ નથી — નીચે અંગ્રેજી આવૃત્તિ છે. અનુવાદ ટૂંક સમયમાં આવે છે.
अक्षय तृतीया
Akshaya Tritiya
Marks the ending of Rishabhanatha’s year-long fast, and with it the origin of the alms round.
Rishabhadeva, the first Tirthankara, renounced the world in an age that had never seen a mendicant. Nobody knew what to give him. He was offered kingdoms, jewels, daughters — everything except food that a monk could accept — and so he walked without eating for a year and some months.
The fast ended at Hastinapur, when a king named Shreyanskumar recognised the discipline, from a memory of an earlier life, and offered him sugarcane juice in cupped hands. That first correct offering is why the day matters: it is the origin of the alms round itself, the moment a society learned how to feed someone who has renounced.
Akshaya means imperishable. The name is shared with a Hindu observance on the same tithi, and the two are frequently confused; the Jain content is entirely this story and its consequence for the relationship between householder and ascetic.
How it is kept
- Those who have kept the varshi tapa — a year-long alternate-day fast — break it on this day, traditionally with sugarcane juice.
- Hastinapur draws large numbers for the parana; the offering is made in the same form, poured into cupped hands.
- The day is a common occasion for laypeople to make the year’s substantial donations.