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Religious Retuals and Practices of the Karnataka Jainas
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fasting day alternating with a mcal day. Finally, the Jaina texts rcfcr to fasts, lasting for the period of five, six or twelve years. In the Dharmacakra type of fasting, one continues to fast for one thousand days. Since every fasting day alternates with a meal day, the process of fasting has to be completed in two thousand days.a
Monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen practise severe fasts of various magnitudes till their death for obtaining spiritual liberation. The practice of fast becomes so important in Karnataka that some of the Jaina monks style themselves as upavāsaparas (devoted to fasts) and astopavasai (one who fasts for eight days). The former is iecorded as the discipic of Vışabhasandi, and the latter is said to have erected memorial tomb for his teacher Elācārya.
Most fasts are possibly prescribed for the Jaina ascetics who aspire to combat the grosser desires of the body so as to prepare it for some sacred ideals. Ordinary fasts form a part of the preparation for the final fast unto death. The provision for taking meals at intervals appears to be a common feature of all the above forms, and is essential for their sustenance so that they may continue their ascetic practices. But they clearly show that the Jaina monks lead a rigorous life of self-abnegation and try to control their sense organs by practising the austerity of fasting. Though the Jaina texts prescribe fasts that extend for a period of five or six or twelve years, epigraphic sources mention only such fasts as lasted for five days, twelve days, twenty one days, one month and two months. It seems possible that fasis of longer duration had gone out of vogue or they were presented as ideals which could never be realised. The post-canonical literature of the Svetāmbaras does also lament the disappearance of longer fasts among the Śvelämbaras,
The Jaina lairy, men and women, are also enjoined to
1. Harivansaputāna, pt. ii, ch, 34, y, 122, p. 445. 2. Ibid. p. 443, cited by Pannalal Jam, (ed ), Harivamsapurāna. 3. EC, 1, SB. 76, p. 40. 4 MAR. 1914, p. 38. 5. GI. Deo S B.. op cit., p. 419
