Meru Trayodashi 2028: Date, History & Significance

The Meru is made in three or five tiers to represent Ashtapada, decorated with flags and lamps, and circumambulated with recitation of the Adinath stavan and the Bhaktamara Stotra. Devotees keep an upvas or ekasana, do temple abhisheka of Rishabhanatha, and give dana. It closes the set of five kalyanak-days of the first Tirthankara.

Rishabhanatha, the first king, teacher of agriculture, crafts and law to the earliest humans, renounced the world, attained omniscience, and finally, at Ashtapada, shed the body and the last karma to reach siddha-hood. His son Bharata (after whom, by tradition, Bharata-varsha is named) raised a jewelled shrine of images of all twenty-four Tirthankaras on the mountain — the Ashtapada tirtha the Meru model recalls.

Source: Regional / sectarian festival tradition and the sources named in the text

Meru Trayodashi is a Shvetambara and Digambara Adinath festival, prominent at Shatrunjaya (Palitana), where Rishabhanatha is the principal deity, and at Ashtapada-linked shrines; the rice-flour Meru is a distinctive household and temple rite.

• Wikipedia

1. Jains mark the nirvana of Rishabhanatha, the first Tirthankara, on Mount Ashtapada, on Magha Krishna Trayodashi.
2. A five-tiered model of Mount Meru is worshipped in temples, and lamps are offered.
3. Many keep an upvas and recite the story of Rishabhanatha's life.

• Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Karnataka. The tiered Meru built and worshipped, Adinath abhisheka, the Bhaktamara Stotra, and a fast; large observance at Palitana.

• Plain food — Those not fasting eat simple food before sunset.

Meru Trayodashi is kept on the day when Trayodashi of Pausha Krishna paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Monday, 24 January 2028. Trayodashi holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

Meru Trayodashi falls on Magha Krishna Trayodashi by the purnimanta reckoning (Pausha Krishna Trayodashi in the Gujarati amanta calendar), in January or February.

A lunar date: Trayodashi of the dark half of Pausha drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.