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Past and Present of a Jaina Festivel
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attracts more and more pilgrims (about 5000 for 269 tapasvīs in 1987; about 6500 for 400 tapasvisin 1988; etc.). It may happen that some heroic tapasvis undertake a long trip on food to reach the tirtha: in 1970, a Jaina weekly recorded the case of a Jaina couple who walked from Pune to Satruñjaya!?. In 1988, one lady did the same, walking from Delhi to Hastinapur. The main elements of the religious routine on the pārana-day are :
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going to the temple in order to worship Rşabhadeva's images and sing hymns of praise to him. (We know of special pāraņā hymns composed for the occasion').
making donations and offering gifts to the tapasvīs, while they offer in turn alms to monks. This is an important episode of the festival, since it is obviously the occasion for well-off families to show their social status;
listening to vyäkhyānas connected with the occasion;
breaking the fast with sugar-cane juice, or, if this is not available, with water sweetened with sugar. As an instance, let me quote here the description given by Jain and Fischer in their book Art and Rituals, 2500 Years of Jainism: "The relatives of the participants go to a nearby shop of sugar-cane crusher, wash the press with boiled water and collect the juice in earthen pots. They bring the juice to the temple and offer the participants 108 small cups full of juice.Other accounts would show that their
is no real fixity in the performance of the ritual.
It is now time for me to depict how Akşayatītiyā is celebrated on a large scale in Hastinapur, in Uttar Pradesh.
Hastinapur is big village, or, if one prefers, a very small town at about 3-4 hours' bus from Delhi. There is hardly any Jaina population permanently living there. Still as a Jaina tīrtha the place does count in today's Jaina sacred geography. This is so for two reasons : first, Hastinapur is indeed one of the oldest tīrthas, the existence of which is confirmed by Jaina scriptures: the lives of at least four Tīrtharkaras are connected with it; second, in the past twenty-five years, the Jaina lay communities from Delhi, Ambala, and Gujarat have shown a strong will
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