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________________ 64 COLETTE CAILLAT training. In many respects, it appears that, in this case also, life is preparing for death. The medieval treatises which deal with the lay-believer's conduct also admit that religious death by starvation is not restricted to the monk. But, on the whole, they do not give much information on this practice, 85 whose aim, it is said, is to help the soul depart from a body that will then be like a dry leaf or a lamp with no oil left. 86 But some samlekhanās have been particularly notorious: that of the last Rāştrakūța (982);87 and, as is well known, that of King Kumārapāla of Gujarat who, like his ācārya Hemacandra, ended his life by starvation (12th cent.). In the same way, the Jainas hold that, in the 4th-3rd cent. B.C., Candragupta Maurya starved to death on the Candragiri Hill at Sravana Belgola. Be that as it may, the epigraphical evidence shows that this ritual was, in fact, sometimes resorted to, in different holy places of India.88 A clear example has been published lately. An inscription, engraved on the Satrunjaya Hill, in the 11th cent. A.D., commemorates the death of Muni Sangamasiddha. It states that he meditated on Mount Satrunjaya, at the feet of the first Prophet, Rşabha; he went through all the ritual purifications; he died in 1006 A.D., having fasted unto death during one month and four days. On the very place where this heroic feat had been achieved, a rich lay-follower had a sanctuary erected, and a statue installed, 85 On the sallekhana-vrata, cf. R. Williams' survey, Jaina Yoga, p. 166-172. 86 Quoted ib., 172. 87 References in Guérinot, Répertoire d'épigraphie jaina, n° 163. 88 Guérinot, Répertoire, passim, quoted by J. Filliozat, 'L'abandon de la vie', p. 72 n. 2, who adds S. R. Sharma, Jainism and Karnataka Culture, p. 192–194. See also P. B. Desai, Jainism in South India and some Jaina Epigraphs, (Sholapur 1957), cf. index, p. 450, s.v. sallēkhana(nā), cf. infra n. 90; Thakur, The History of Suicide, p. 104, quoting EI XX, p. 98, n. 691, concerning the suicide of a Jaina congregation at Kālandri, Sirohi State. – A. N. Upadhye, 'More Light on the Yāpaniya Sangha', 29th CO (Paris, 1973), passim, cf. Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 55, 1974, (9-22), p. 16.
SR No.269284
Book TitleFasting Unto Death According To Jaina Tradition
Original Sutra AuthorN/A
AuthorColette Caillat
PublisherColette Caillat
Publication Year
Total Pages24
LanguageEnglish
ClassificationArticle
File Size2 MB
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