Jains keep Diwali on the same night as Hindus and for an entirely different reason: Mahavira attained nirvana at Pavapuri, in present-day Bihar, on the new moon of Kartik, traditionally 527 BCE, and Gautama Swami, his chief disciple, attained omniscience the same night. The eighteen kings assembled there are said to have lit lamps, declaring that since the light of knowledge had gone out, they would make material light — which is the Jain account of why the festival involves lamps. The Nirvana Kanda is recited, temples are illuminated, and at Pavapuri the water temple over the cremation site is the destination. In the mercantile communities of Gujarat and Rajasthan the same night is Chopda Pujan, when the year's account books are closed and the new ones consecrated, with the first pages inscribed with auspicious symbols — the beginning of the Vikram Samvat business year. It is a good example of a shared date carrying separate content, and of how thoroughly Jain practice is threaded through Indian commercial life.