Jain tradition places Mahavira's death, understood within the tradition as his final liberation from the cycle of rebirth rather than an ordinary death, at Pavapuri, in present day Bihar, traditionally dated to 527 BCE. Accounts describe him delivering extended final teachings through the night before his passing, and later tradition holds that the assembled kings and disciples lit lamps to mark the departure of his light from the world, an image Jain communities connect directly to their own observance of Diwali.
Jain Diwali, observed at the same time of year as the better known Hindu festival, commemorates Mahavira's liberation rather than the return of Rama to Ayodhya, and is followed shortly afterward by the Jain new year. The overlap in timing and lamp-lighting imagery with the Hindu festival is a matter of shared regional culture rather than shared theology, and Jain communities are careful to distinguish the two observances even where they fall on the same days.
Pavapuri remains an active pilgrimage site for Jain communities, with a temple built over a lotus pond said to mark the location of the cremation, and the site draws pilgrims from both the Digambara and Svetambara traditions despite their broader differences over doctrine and practice.