About this stamp
Deekshabhoomi, Nagpur
India Post issued two ₹5 stamps, printed together as a pair, on 14 April 2017, Ambedkar Jayanti, on Deekshabhoomi in Nagpur. Here, on 14 October 1956, Dr B. R. Ambedkar embraced Buddhism with nearly four lakh followers. He chose Nagpur as the homeland of the Nag people who had supported early Buddhism, and the day of Ashoka Vijaya Dashami, on which the emperor Ashoka was said to have embraced it; 1956 was also the 2,550th birth anniversary of the Buddha. Ambedkar and his wife took the Three Jewels and the Five Precepts from the Burmese monk Mahasthavir Chandramani of Kushinagar, and Ambedkar then gave them, with his 22 vows, to his followers.
The Stupa
Deekshabhoomi covers 22 acres in the heart of Nagpur. Its stupa, inaugurated by President K. R. Narayanan on 18 December 2001, is the largest hollow stupa in India: 36 metres across, its dome resting on 24 pillars like the 24 spokes of the Ashoka Chakra, over a prayer hall 64 metres square that holds relics of Ambedkar and an image of the Buddha. Its four doors lead to gates modelled on those of Sanchi. A Bodhi tree grown from a sapling of the tree at Anuradhapura stands beside it, and the Government of Maharashtra has made Deekshabhoomi a Grade-A pilgrimage centre.
The stamps were designed by Nenu Gupta; Security Printing Press, Hyderabad printed 3.10 lakh of each.
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