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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
Bhādra Śu. 3: Trailokya-vrata or Teejrot, a fast especially kept by young unmarried girls. Bhādra Šu. 4 : Bathing and washing the images, and cleaning and decorating the temples. Bhādra Šu. 5: Samvatsarī, the end of the Svetāmbara Paryusana, the annual stock-taking of merit and demerit, introspection, confession and penance, particularly by the ascetic community. On this day also begins the five days'. fast known as the Puspāñjali-vrata, as also the Daśa-lākṣaṇī-parva lasting ten days which is also the Paryusaņa-parva for the Digambaras. This is generally regarded as the holiest period in the whole year. Bhādra Śu. 7: Śrla-saptamī or Nirdosa-saptamī fast. Bhādra Śu. 10: Sugandha-daśami fast, when incenses are especially burnt before the images of the 'Jina. Bhādra Šu. 11: Ananta-vrata, a three-day fast, begins. Bhādra Śu. 12: The Dugdha-rasa fast. Bhādra Šu. 13: Ratna-traya-vrata begins; it lasts three days, and is marked by adoration of and meditation upon the trio of spiritual jewels. Bhādra Śu. 14: Ananta-caturdaśī, the holiest day of this holy period of ten days (Daśa-laksana-parva), when almost all the Jainas, men and women, young and old, keep fast and worship the Jina. Āśvina Kr. 1: Kşamāvaṇī, 'the day of universal forgiveness', when every Jaina asks forgiveness of every body else, and himself forgives others, for wrongs done by or to himself, during the past year. Kārtika Kr. 13: Dhana-terasa, the day when Lord Mahāvīra arrived at Pāvā to obtain nirvāņa there. Kārtika Kr. 14: Rūpa-caturdaśī, also known as Chotī-Dīwālī,
