________________
WORSHIP, RITUAL, FASTS AND FESTIVALS
141
keep very long fasts, generally take lukewarm boiled water only once or twice a day, or on alternate days. Thus there are many forms, depending upon the will power, inclination and capacity for endurance of the individuals.
The common fast-days are the eighth and fourteenth days of each fortnight of the month of the Indian calendar, thus more or less once a week, when the devout keep the proșadha fast. Then, there are the last eight days each of the Indian months of Kārtika, Phālguna and Aşādha, known as the three Astāhnikas, and the last ten days each of the months of Bhādra, Māgha and Chaitra, called the three Daśa-lākṣaṇīs. Each of these periods is the occasion for keeping one or more fasts. Most other holy days and festivals of the Jainas are celebrated, among other things, by keeping fast. No Jaina usually takes food after sunset, and on these holy days, or during these holy periods, he or she becomes all the more parsimonious, simple and austere in matters of what he eats and drinks, and how many times, as also in using aids to adorn one's body and appearance. Fast is thus an important feature of the Jaina way of life.
Festivals
There is hardly any month of the year which does not contain one or more Jaina holiday, fast-days, festivals or fairs, which may be broadly divided into five classes: periodical, Tirthankarakalyāņaka, historical, local, and special. In the first category are the four prosadha or fast-days of the month and the three Astāhnikas and three Daśa-lākṣaṇīs of the year. They are of an eternal character, with no historical origin. The second category comprises the kalyanaka days of the twentyfour Tirthankaras of the current cycle of time; the five events, conception, birth, renunciation, omniscience (kaivalya) and liberation (nirvana) of Tirtharkara's life are called the five kalyānakas and are considered the most auspicious.
These events possess a proto-historical or traditional significance; the Jainas have scrupulously preserved the dates of these
