Bearing History—Women, Death and the Jaina Ritual of Sallekhanā

Abstract

The largely-prescriptive Jaina literary texts contained severe strictures on women that forbade them from undertaking sallekhanā (fasting to death) to attain spiritual liberation. However, fragmentary inscriptions written on stone slabs and pillars found in the Deccan indicate that women did undertake and experience this ritual practice. These records, written at the behest of those who took care of individuals going through sallekhanā, enable us to juxtapose these two sources to argue that there was a dynamic regional religious and social milieu which prevailed over the didactic and normative depictions of an apparently pan-Indian Jaina sensibility. The idea and practice of spiritual liberation during early medieval times in this case study of the Deccan thus illustrates the gender and institutional history of the Jaina faith in its regional and local dimensions.

Keywords:

• Jainism
• women
• ritual death
• sallekhanā
• Yāpanīya sect
• Deccan

Notes

¹Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (eds), Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990), p.1.

²Aloka Parasher-Sen, ‘Temple Girls and the Land Grant Economy 8th–13th AD’, in Aloka Parasher-Sen (ed.), Social and Economic History of Early Deccan—Some Interpretations (New Delhi: Manohar Books, 1993), pp.240–77.

³Aloka Parasher-Sen, ‘Images of Feminine Identity in Hindu Mythology and Art—The Case of Vishnu-Mohini’, in Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Vol.VI, no.1 (1999), pp.43–60; and Aloka Parasher-Sen, ‘Lajja Gauris—The Universe Within And/Or Out?’, in Religioni e Società Simbolismo religioso tra Oriente e Occidente (Journal on Sociology of Religions), No.44 (Sept.–Dec. 2002), pp.13–49.

⁴Aloka Parasher-Sen, ‘“The Self” and the “Other” in Early Indian Tradition’, in S.C. Malik (ed.), Rupa-Pratirupa Mind, Man and Mask (New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 2001), pp.28–49.

⁵Aloka Parasher-Sen, ‘Jaina Women, Ritual Death and the Deccan’, in Julia A.B. Hegewald (ed.) The Jaina Heritage: Distinction, Decline and Resilience, Heidelberg Series in South Asian and Comparative Studies, Volume II (New Delhi: Samskriti, 2011), pp.213–43.

⁶Isabelle Nabokov, Religion Against the Self, An Ethnogrpahy of Tamil Rituals (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p.12.

⁷Louis Dumont, Religion, Politics and History in India. Collected Papers in Sociology (The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1970), p.45.

⁸Caroline Humphrey and James Laidlaw, The Archetypal Actions of Ritual, Illustrated by the Jain Rite of Worship (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), p.267, emphasis added.

⁹ Ibid., p.88.

¹⁰ Ibid., p.260.

¹¹Padmanabh S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), pp.225–6.

¹² Ibid., p.227.

¹³J.C. Sikdar, Studies in the Bhagawatī Sūtra (Muzzaffarpur: Prakrit Jain Institute, Research Publication Series, Vol.I, 1964), p.398, cited in S. Settar, Inviting Death: Historical Experiments on Sepulchral Hill (Dharwad: Institute of Indian Art History, Karnatak University, 1986), p.112, n.107.

¹⁴Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification, p.227.

¹⁶S. Settar, Inviting Death: Historical Experiments on Sepulchral Hill (Dharwad: Institute of Indian Art History, Karnatak University, 1986), pp.xxv–xxvi.

¹⁵ Ibid., p.229.

¹⁷In 2006 the BBC reported the death of a 76-year-old man, Shri Amar Chandji, and a 60-year-old woman, Shrimati Vimal Devi, both from Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, who died while practising santhara. Petitioners have sought the intervention of the police and the courts in trying to stop this practice, equating it with suicide [http://www.jainsamaj.org/magazines/may-2009.htm, accessed 10 May 2009].

¹⁸Utpala Mody, ‘Samlekhana is a Step Towards Self-Realization’, National Seminar on Bio-Ethics, Jan. 24–25, Joshi-Bedekar College, Thane, Mumbai, 2007, p.33 [http://www.vpmthane.org/Publications(sample">http://www.vpmthane.org/Publications(sample)/Bio-Ethics/Utpala%20Mody.pdf, accessed 10 May 2009].

¹⁹Justic T.K. Tukol, ‘Samādhi Maraa is Not Suicide’, pp.2–3 [http://www.jainworld.com/education/seniors/senles15.htm, accessed 18 Mar. 2008].

²⁰ Ibid., p.1.

²¹See particularly Padmanabh S. Jaini, ‘Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women’, in P.S. Jaini (ed.), Collected Papers on Jain Studies (New Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass, 2000), pp.163–98, in which Jaini summarises arguments based on his book Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) [http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft138nb0wk/, accessed 11 Feb. 2007].

²²This discussion is summarised from Jaini, Gender and Salvation. The verses from original texts cited hereafter are as given by Jaini in the online version of this book.

²³There were many more nuns than monks and this remains the case today. See Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification, pp.37, 246.

²⁵Moksa literally means ‘spiritual liberation’.

²⁶Jaini, Gender and Salvation, p. 40, footnote 17, explains a Tirthankara as ‘a person who in addition to being an Omniscient Being is also a teacher and becomes the founder of a new community of mendicants’.

²⁷These are verses #6–8 as translated by Jaini, Gender and Salvation, p.34. Each verse ends with a number as given by the translator.

²⁸ Ibid., pp.142–3. Translations of verses #4 and #6–8 by Jaini. Each verse ends with a *number as given by the translator.

³¹Cakravartin is a title literally meaning ‘sovereign of the world’ usually adopted by rulers in ancient India to make claims to be called emperor.

³²Jaini, Gender and Salvation, verses #42–44, p.156. In the case of these verses no number is given at the end of each as was the case with verses cited earlier.

³⁴ Ibid., verse #1, p.49.

³⁵ Ibid, verses #27–8, p.56.

³⁶ Ibid., verse #31, p.56. The ‘whisk broom’ is a light and fluffy hand-brush meant to be used by monks and nuns to whisk away any living beings such as insects, flies etc. that may cross their paths. Just as this light brush barely touches these living beings, the clothes worn by women should be considered as barely touching the body when they are in such meditation to achieve spiritual liberation.

³⁷An Arhat is one who is an eligible candidate to undertake spiritual liberation and worthy to be considered a venerable monk.

³⁸ Ibid., verse #54, p.63.

⁴⁰ Ibid., verse #61, p.66.

²⁴In the passages quoted below from Jaini's Gender and Salvation online book, the Sanskrit words have not been italicised and do not have diacritical marks as per Jaini's original.

²⁹Robert G. Goldman, ‘Forward’, in Padmanabh S. Jaini, Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), online version, p.xvii.

³⁰ Ibid.

³³ Ibid., p.43.

³⁹ Ibid., pp.63–5.

⁴¹ Ibid., verse #70, p.69.

⁴² Ibid., p.141.

⁴³B.S.L. Hanumantha Rao, Religion in Andhra (A Survey of Religious Developments in Andhra from Early Times up to A.D. 1325) (Hyderabad: Archaeological Series No. 69, Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1993). This information is given in note 145 and has some credence as this book was published by the Archaeology and Museums department of the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Today the sculptures are found at the Mallikārjuna Temple.

⁴⁴J.E. Cort, ‘Bhakti in the Early Jain Tradition: Understanding Devotional Religion in South Asia’, in History of Religions, Vol.XLII (2000), p.70.

⁴⁵J.E. Cort, ‘Singing the Glory of Asceticism: Devotion of Asceticism in Jainism’, in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol.XX (2002), pp.719–42.

⁴⁶ Basadis are institutional Jaina habitations attached to a shrine or temple.

⁴⁷Nagarajaih Hampa, A History of the Early Ganga Monarchy and Jainism (Bangalore: Ankita Pustaka Publications, 1999), p.48.

⁴⁸Settar, Inviting Death: Historical Experiments on Sepulchral Hill, p.22. Three days before Mārasimha terminated his life and achieved samādhi, he had received the ārādhanā vow from his preceptor.

⁴⁹Hampa, A History of the Early Ganga Monarchy and Jainism, p.49.

⁵⁰Nagarajaiah Hampa, Koppala Śāsanagalu (in Kannada) (Mysore: Ratnatraya Publications, 1998).

⁵¹Koppala was also known in variant spellings as Kopana, Koppal, Koppa, etc.

⁵²Nagarajaiah Hampa, Jaina Corpus of Koppala Inscriptions X-Rayed (Bangalore: Ankita Pustaka Publications, 1999), p.12.

⁵³Hampa, Koppala Śāsanagalu, pp.108–9.

⁵⁴These Charters are edited, translated and numbered in Hampa, Koppala Śāsanagalu and all are summarised in Hampa, Jaina Corpus of Koppala Inscriptions X-Rayed.

⁵⁵There is a problem in dating this death. See Hampa, Jaina Corpus of Koppala Inscriptions X-Rayed., p.53 for details.

⁵⁶ Ibid., p.52.

⁵⁷Nagarajaih Hampa, History of the Rastrakutas of Malkhed and Jainism (Bangalore: Ankita Pustaka Publications, 2000), p.35.

⁵⁸ Ibid.

⁵⁹Hampa, Jaina Corpus of Koppala Inscriptions X-Rayed, pp.58–9.

⁶⁰ Ibid., pp.34–5.

⁶¹In Koppala Charter No. 67, there is another mention of Poleyabbe who was a disciple of Śrīdhara Bha āraka and who erected niśidhi for him after he had attained sanyāsana-vidhi.

⁶² Ibid, pp.45–6, 52.

⁶³R. Narasimhachar, ‘Inscriptions at Śravaabegoa’, in Epigraphica Carnatica, Vol.II (Bangalore: Mysore Archaeological Series, rev. ed. 1923). This volume is full of epitaphs or niśidhis erected to commemorate sallekhanā deaths, as for instance Inscriptions 67, 118, 258, 389.

⁶⁴There are two hills at Shravanabelgola, Chandragiri or Chikkabetta and Vindyagiri. In this context the former is referred to while at the latter, the well-known colossus of Gomateswara, dated to 978–993 CE, is located.

⁶⁵Settar, Inviting Death: Historical Experiments on Sepulchral Hill, p.7.

⁶⁶Narasimhachar, ‘Inscriptions at Śravaabegoa’, pp.xiii–xv. Jaina traditional literature informs us that Bhadrabāhu, along with Chandragupta and the entire sangha of ascetics, migrated to Shravanabelgola in the fourth century BCE because there had been famine in the north for twelve years.

⁶⁷Settar, Inviting Death: Historical Experiments on Sepulchral Hill, pp.8, 214–56.

⁶⁸ Ibid., p.9.

⁶⁹Pictures 11 and 12 of Kamat Research Data Base: History of Education—Jain System of Education, p.8 [http://www.kamat.com/database/books/kareducation/jaina_education.htm, accessed 18 Mar. 2006].

⁷⁰Settar, Inviting Death: Historical Experiments on Sepulchral Hill, p.10.

⁷¹C.R. Krishnamacharlu (ed.), Bombay-Karnatak Inscriptions, Vol.I, part 1 [South Indian Inscriptions, Vol.XI] (Madras: Archaeological Survey of India, 1940), Vol.XI, pt.1, no. 61, p.61.

⁷²For instance, names of gurus who are mentioned are Moni-gurvaigal of Cittūr, Permāu Guravai, Kumāranandi-bhaāra and others.

⁷³The identification of nuns in the sangha was made on the basis of their affiliation to sub-sanghas such as Ājigaa, Sandviga-gaa and so on.

⁷⁴Settar, Inviting Death: Historical Experiments on Sepulchral Hill, p.10.

⁷⁵ Ibid., pp.16–17.

⁷⁶ Ibid., p.17.

⁷⁷ Ibid., pp.15–16.

⁷⁸ Ibid., pp.17–18.

⁷⁹Mūla literally means ‘root’ to indicate the ‘original’ order of monks.

⁸⁰The post-twelfth century CE period is discussed by Settar in a section entitled ‘Emergence of Monuments—Shift in Spiritual Outlook’, in ibid., pp.23–30, and in another chapter entitled ‘Age of Great Material and Religious Prosperity, in ibid., pp.31–71. The ideas in the above paragraph have been summarised from Settar.

⁸¹ Ibid., pp.64–5.

⁸² Ibid., p.65.

⁸³ Ibid., p.66.

⁸⁴ Ibid., p.67.For the twelfth to thirteenth centuries CE only one instance of a nun is found in the records, namely Śrīmatī-gantī, whose death by samādhi in 1119 CE was commemorated by her disciple Mānkabbe-gantī.

⁸⁵ Ibid., p.69, emphasis added.

⁸⁶ Ibid., p.71.

⁸⁷I have borrowed the idea of ‘Bearing History’ in the title of this paper and women as ‘Bearers’ in this section from Lambek. He writes in the context of his study of Madagascar: ‘The history that Sakalava bear is no mere charter or ideological superstructure but the ground of value and virtue. That is, it forms a whole’. See Michael J. Lambek, The Weight of the Past: Living with History in Mahajanga, Madagascar (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), p.14 (emphasis added). This idea permits us to see Jaina women and their actions as part of a larger societal and ethical whole in the early Deccan.

⁸⁸Paul Dundas, ‘A Non-Imperial Religion? Jainism in its “Dark Age”’ in Patrick Olivelle (ed.), Between the Empires, Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), p.391.

⁸⁹S. Ritti, Seunas: The Yadavas of Devagiri (Dharwad: Karnatak University, 1973), pp.256–7. Rittiwrites:‘Jainism was a predominant religion in the Deccan from the early days. The discovery of large number of Jaina records, monasteries and references to the name of religious teachers, ascetics and disciples and a large number of Jaina authors who flourished in this tract, go to prove the influence this religion had on the people’.

⁹⁰For very early periods in Jaina history scriptural descriptions tend to suggest that ascetic life was a marker of moral authority in Jaina society as a whole. Dundas, however, wonders whether ‘the ideal of solitary wandering…ever had any concrete actuality beyond the scriptural descriptions’. Dundas, ‘A Non-Imperial Religion? Jainism in its “Dark Age”’, p.384.

⁹¹Some of the other dynasties of the early medieval period that give us such detail are the Eastern Chalukyas in coastal Andhra, the early Pallavas of Kachi, and the Rashtrakutas of Malkhed. See M.V. Krishna Rao, The Gangas of Talkad (Madras: University of Madras, 1936), pp.193, 198; and K.A.N. Sastry, A History of South India (Madras: Oxford University Press, 2nd. ed. 1958), p.426. An accumulation of data for the early historic period indicates that certain ruling elites of this period also patronised Jainism. See Hanumantha Rao, Religion in Andhra (A Survey of Religious Developments in Andhra from Early Times up to A.D. 1325, pp.146–71.

⁹²Hampa, A History of the Early Ganga Monarchy and Jainism, p.35.

⁹³Simhavarma's (400–420 CE) favourite courtesan (rājapriyanartaki), Nandavva, had commissioned an arhadāyatana and established the Nandavva basadi, whilst Padmāvatī/Padmābbarasi built a basadi at Naregal in 950 CE and made provisions for the upkeep of the temple there. See South Indian Inscriptions, Vol.XI, pt.1, p.38. Several other examples are cited in Hampa, A History of the Early Ganga Monarchy and Jainism, pp.16–17.

⁹⁴Simhanandin hailed from Ganga Perur, a flourishing Jaina centre in southern Andhra Pradesh. See G. Jawaharlal, Jainism in Andhra (as depicted in Inscriptions) (Jaipur and Hyderabad: Prakrita Bharati Academy and Akhil Bharati Sri Suwarna Jain Seva Fund, 1984), p.89; and Hanumantha Rao, Religion in Andhra, p.163.

⁹⁵Traditionally scholars explain the regional spread of these two sects in terms of the Digambaras spreading more in the south to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu etc. and the Śvetāmbaras being largely concentrated in Gujarat, Rajasthan and the north in general.

⁹⁶Hampa, A History of the Early Ganga Monarchy and Jainism, p.8.

⁹⁷Jaini, Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women, p.42.

⁹⁸Hanumantha Rao, Religion in Andhra, pp.166–7.

⁹⁹Jaini, Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women, pp.42–3.

¹⁰⁰Both the Rashtrakuta and Ganga rulers had a close association with the Yāpanīya ācārayas and their sangha.

¹⁰¹Hampa, Jaina Corpus of Koppala Inscriptions X-Rayed, p.4.

¹⁰²Dundas, ‘A Non-Imperial Religion? Jainism in its “Dark Age”’, p.406.

¹⁰³Rajaram Hegde, ‘The Jaina Tradition and the Regional Society in Early Kannada Literature’, in Deccan Studies, Special Issue on Jainism, Vol.V, no.1 (Jan.–June 2007), pp.59–60.

¹⁰⁴Settar, Inviting Death: Historical Experiments on Sepulchral Hill, pp. 112, 114–9.

¹⁰⁵Scholars have noted that it was among the Digambaras that the practice of death by self-starvation was known as sallekhanā. It was less common among the Śvetāmbaras and was called santhāra by them. See Lawrence A. Babb, Absent Lord—Ascetics and Kings in a Jaina Ritual Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), pp.2, 60.

¹⁰⁶Settar, Inviting Death: Historical Experiments on Sepulchral Hill, p.xxv.

¹⁰⁷Humphrey and Laidlaw, The Archetypal Actions of Ritual, Illustrated by the Jain Rite of Worship, pp.5, 64.

¹⁰⁸Lambek, The Weight of the Past: Living with History in Mahajanga, Madagascar, back page blurb.