Jainism in Ealy Medieval Karnataka

Author(s): Ram Bhushan Prasad Singh
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 79

CHAPTER IV
RELIGIOUS RITUALS AND PRACTICES OF THE
KARNATAKA JAINAS
Rituals and practices of the Jainas are as simple as their moral code of conduct. They aim at salvation in accordance with the doctrines of Jainism. Some of these are concerned with the ceremony of image worship, and others with the daily and periodical observances of the Jaina monks as well as the layinen. Thcy are designed to serve as aids to spiritual progress and lead the Jainas from the realm of ignorance to the attainment of final liberation.
One of the important Digambara Jaina practices is the sallekhanā or voluntary sc]f-sacrifice of life by abandoning food and drink. According to it, an aspirant devotce lies in some holy place and ccases to take food and drink until he meets his death Thus it may be defined as the voluntary end of life with the object of attaining salvation.
Death by fasting was given a high-place in the Jaina canons. They frankly recommended voluntary self-sacrifice of the body by fasting. The Ullaradhyayana” refers to wise man's death according to which a person embraces it willingly. It also speaks of the death of an ignorant man who is not willing and prepared to meet his death. The famous Digambara authority, Sāmantabhadra, who flourished during the carly years of the Christian cra, states in his Ratnakaranda-Srāvakacara that if a person gives up his body in vnavoidable calamitics, famines, extreme old age and incurable disease, with a view to acquiring religious merit, it is known as sallekhanā.3 Somadeva, who flourished in Karnataka in the 10th century, gives a similai account of this ritual. He states that when the body is about to perish like a dry leaf of a lamp without oil, the 1. Jaina rituals relating to image worship bave been discussed in
Chapter III 2. Ullaradhyayanasūlra, 5, 2-3; SBE, XIV, p. 21, . 3. CR. Jain (tr), Ratnakaranda-Srävakācāra, v. 122, p. 58.