________________
610
The Unknown Pilgrims
the ascetic life when, suddenly, a change took place in her. She felt inspired to undertake the total fast which leads to mahāprasthāna. In the course of this fast, which lasted twenty-two days, her insight into spiritual realities intensified and on October 23, 1964, the Jewel left this world, but its splendour remains. She was thirty years of age and had been a sādhvi for thirteen years.
The book is not, properly speaking, a biography. It is a collection of eye-witness accounts, written by several munis and sādhvis and by the brother of Sãdhvi Ratnavati, to which are added some poems extolling different aspects of this extraordinary case.66 Each short study is a personal one, which seeks to explain this event and give it its rightful place in the Jaina tradition. As we read these accounts of the events and the reflections arising therefrom, we can observe the successive stages of a rapid ascent.
From childhood to dikşă
Sādhvi Ratnavati was born in Rajasthāna into a well-to-do and devoted Terāpanthi family. She did not attend school, but studied at home, in particular Sanskrit. When still very young, she evidenced an attraction for the ascetic life and even requested her parents' permission to receive dikşă. Her father, alarmed by this request, hastened to get her married when she reached the age of thirteen. The young bride allowed the ceremony to take place, but a few days later she declared firmly that she could not remain in this state of life one day longer and, to annul the alliance contracted against her will, took a vow of virginity. The two families, much concerned about this state of affairs, attempted to dissuage her and lure her from her purpose, but in vain. About two years after the marriage, seeing her determination, the parents requested the ācārya to accept her. To her great joy she was admitted to the ranks of the vairāginis of the Samsthā.67 There
66 We recall how one of the chief characteristics of the Terāpanthis is to have one single ācārya. This tends to result in a highly compact organisation and community participation in the preceedings of and happenings within the gaņa.
67 Cf. P 469 ff.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
