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ALA JAIN FESTIVALS.
of the Tapa. Rice is generally used for white, gram for red, wheat for yellow, pulse for blue and black pulse for black. On the last day "Navapada" Puja is performed with great eclat before the Siddha Chakra Mandal with singings and offerings and pouring pots of Pakhal consisting of water, milk, saffron and clarified butter.
The Dewali or Kartick Budi 15 is celebrated amongst all the Hindu communities of India as a day of rejoicings and invoking the Goddess of Wealth. The Jains hold it as specially sacred as the day of Nirvân of Mahavir Swami. They present offerings of sweets particularly the ball-shaped sweets called "Laddu" in the temple. A large number of them visit Pawapuri in Bihar to attend the anniversary and Mahotsab at the place where this Nirvan took place more than five centuries before Christ.
Kartick Sukla 5 is known as Jnyân Panchami when the Jains celebrate Puja in their temples and worship nyan or Knowledge with offerings and prayers. Kartick Sukla 15 is also another day of religious observances and rejoicings like
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