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[ જૈન દૃષ્ટિએ તિિિદન અને પર્વારાધન... are also to be treated as parva tithis. Their number is about 70 per year. Besides, Dvitiya, Panchami and Ekadashi of each fortnight are regarded as holy tithis and are on par with parvatithis, over and above the usual parva tithis such as Astami, Chaturdashi, Purnima and Amavasya. Any of these tithis may happen to be ksina or vrddha in the Panchanga. Hence it is not practicable and possible to maintain that Umasvati's Rule applies to ordinary tithis and not to parva tithis. The grouping of tithis into parva tithis and ordinary tithis for this Rule would thus lead to chaos, and is not at all supported by the Shastras.
Issue No. VII
My findings on this Issue are that there are, according to Jain Shastras, two rites the observance of which is restricted to definite tithis. They are Samvatsari or Samvatsarika Pratikramana which is fixed to be observed on the Chaturthi in the bright half of Bhadrapada, and the Paksika Pratikramana which is fixed for Chaturdashi of every fortnight. Kalyanakas also have to be observed on the prescribed tithis. Other observances on the other hand are shiftable, particularly the fasts, to any other convenient date. Of these, the day of Samvastsari is the centre or pivot of the religious life of all the constituents of the Jain Sangha.
According to old Texts, the day of Samvatsari was the Panchami in the bright half of Bhadrapada. This day comes approximately one month and twenty nights after the comencemment of the Rainy Season, the day for which was fixed at the Purnima of Asadha. After the Samvatsari an approximate period of seventy nights ending on the Purnima of Kartika remained of the stay of the Rainy season.
One incident in the history of the Jain Church, however, brought about the shifting back of the date of Samvatsari and consequently of the day of Chaturmasika Pratikramana or more accurately of the commencement of the Rainy Season. Kalakacharya, as the story goes, at the request of a king, allowed the day of Samvatsari to be shifted back by a day, in order to avoid a clash with at local festival fixed for Panchami of the bright half of Bhadrapada. Chaturthi thus came to be fixed for the observance of Samvatsari. In order, however, to keep the period of one month and twenty days between the date of the commencement of Rainy Season and the date of Samvatsari, they had to shift back the date of commencement of the Rainy Season to Chaturdashi of the bright half of Asadha. The followers of the Tapagaccha continued consistently to observe their Chaturmasika Pratikramana on Chaturdashi of Asadha since then, and Samvatsari on the chaturthi of the bright half of Bhadrapada. Panchami thus
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