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Sallekhana (IAST:sallekhanā), also known assamlehna,santhara,samadhi-marana orsanyasana-marana,[1] is a supplementary vow to theethical code of conduct ofJainism. It is the religious practice of voluntarily fasting to death by gradually reducing the intake of food and liquids.[2] It is viewed in Jainism as the thinning of human passions and the body,[3] and another means of destroying rebirth-influencingkarma by withdrawing all physical and mental activities.[2] It is not considered a suicide by Jain scholars because it is not an act of passion, nor does it employ poisons or weapons.[2] After thesallekhana vow, the ritual preparation and practice can extend into years.[1]
Sallekhana is a vow available to both Jainascetics andhouseholders.[4] Historic evidence such asnishidhi engravings suggestsallekhana was observed by both men and women, including queens, in Jain history.[1] However, in the modern era, death throughsallekhana has been a relatively uncommon event.[5] There is debate about the practice from aright to life vsright to die and afreedom of religion viewpoint. In 2015, theRajasthan High Court banned the practice, considering itsuicide. In 2016, theSupreme Court of India stayed the decision of the Rajasthan High Court and lifted the ban onsallekhana.[6]
There are five great vows prescribed to followers of Jainism;ahimsa (non-violence),satya (not lying),asteya (not stealing),brahmacharya (chastity), andaparigraha (non-possession).[7] A further seven supplementary vows are also prescribed, which include threegunavratas (merit vows) and fourshikshavratas (disciplinary vows). The threeGunavratas are:Digvrata (limited movements, limiting one's area of activity),bhogopabhogaparimana (limiting the use of consumable and non-consumable things), andanartha-dandaviramana (abstain from purposeless sins). Theshikshavratas include:samayika (vow to meditate and concentrate for limited periods),desavrata (limiting movement and space of activity for limited periods),prosadhopavāsa (fasting for limited periods), andatithi-samvibhag (offering food to the ascetic).[8][9][10]
Sallekhana is treated as a supplementary to these twelve vows. However, some Jain teachers such asKundakunda,Devasena, Padmanandin, and Vasunandin have included it undershikshavratas.[11]
Sallekhana means to properly 'thin out', 'scour out', or 'slender' the passions and the body through gradually abstaining from food and drink.[12][2]Sallekhana is divided into two components:kashaya sallekhana (slendering of passions) orabhayantra sallekhana (internal slendering) andkaya sallekhana (slendering the body) orbahya sallekhana (external slendering).[13] It is described as "facing death voluntarily through fasting".[1] According toJain texts,sallekhana leads toahimsa (non-violence or non-injury), as a person observingsallekhana subjugates the passions, which are the root cause ofhimsa (injury or violence).[14]
WhileSallekhana is prescribed for bothhouseholders andascetics, Jain texts describe conditions when it is appropriate.[1][15][16] It should not be observed by a householder without the guidance of a Jain ascetic.[17]
Sallekhana is always voluntary, undertaken after the public declaration, and never assisted with any chemicals or tools. Fasting causes weight loss due to malnutrition. As death is imminent, the individual discontinues food and water, with full knowledge of colleagues and spiritual counsellor.[18] In some cases, Jains with terminal illness undertakesallekhana, and in these cases, they ask for permission from their spiritual counsellor.[19][note 1] For a successfulsallekhana, the death must be with "pure means", voluntary, planned, undertaken with calmness, peace, and joy by which the person accepts the ultimate purification of the body and focuses the mind on spiritual matters.[4][2]
Sallekhana differs from other forms of ritual deaths recognized in Jainism as appropriate.[21] The other situations consider ritual death preferable to a mendicant breaking his or herFive Great vows (Mahavrata).[21] For example, celibacy is one of the Five vows, and ritual death is considered better than being raped or seduced or if the mendicant community would be defamed. A ritual death under these circumstances by consuming poison is believed to be better, and thus allows for an auspicious rebirth.[21]
The duration of the practice can vary from a few days to years.[1][22] The sixth part of theRatnakaranda śrāvakācāra describesSallekhana and its procedure[23] as follows:
Giving up solid food by degrees, one should take to milk and whey, then giving them up, to hot or spiced water. [Subsequently] giving up hot water also, and observing fasting with full determination, he should give up his body, trying in every possible way to keep in mind thepancha-namaskara mantra.
— Ratnakaranda śrāvakācāra (127–128)[23]
Jain texts mention five transgressions (Atichara) of the vow: the desire to be reborn as a human, the desire to be reborn as a divinity, the desire to continue living, the desire to die quickly, and the desire to live a sensual life in the next life. Other transgressions include: recollection of affection for friends, recollection of the pleasures enjoyed, and longing for the enjoyment of pleasures in the future.[24][25][26]
The ancient Śvetāmbara Jain textĀcārāṅga Sūtra, dated to about 3rd or 2nd century BCE, describes three forms ofSallekhana: theBhaktapratyakhyana, theIngita-marana, and thePadapopagamana. InBhaktapratyakhyana, the person who wants to observe the vow selects an isolated place where he lies on a bed made of straw, does not move his limbs, and avoids food and drink until he dies. InIngita-marana, the person sleeps on bare ground. He can sit, stand, walk, or move, but avoids food until he dies. InPadapopagamana, a person stands "like a tree" without food and drink until he dies.[1]
Another variation ofSallekhana isItvara which consists of voluntarily restricting oneself in a limited space and then fasting to death.[21]
_with_old_Kannada_inscription_(869_C.E.).JPG)
TheĀcārāṅga Sūtra (c. 5th century BCE – c. 1st century BCE) describesthree forms of the practice. EarlyŚvetāmbara[note 2] textShravakaprajnapti notes that the practice is not limited to ascetics. TheBhagavati Sūtra (2.1) also describesSallekhana in great detail, as it was observed by Skanda Katyayana, an ascetic ofMahavira. The 4th-century textRatnakaranda śrāvakācāra and the Śvetāmbara textNava-pada-prakarana also provide detailed descriptions. TheNava-pada-prakarana mentions seventeen methods of "voluntarily chosen death", of which it approves only three as consistent with the teachings of Jainism.[11] The practice is also mentioned in the 2nd century CESangam-era poemSirupanchamoolam.[20]
ThePanchashaka makes only a cursory mention of the practice and it is not described inDharmabindu—both texts byHaribhadra (c. 5th century). In the 9th century text "Ādi purāṇa" byJinasena thethree forms are described.Yashastilaka bySomadeva (10th century) also describes the practice. Other writers like Vaddaradhane (10th century) and Lalitaghate also describe thePadapopagamana, one of its forms.Hemchandra (c. 11th century) describes it in a short passage despite his detailed coverage of the observances of householders (Shravakachara).[1][11][2]
According toTattvartha Sutra, "a householder willingly or voluntarily adoptsSallekhana when death is very near."[25] According to the medieval era Jain text,Puruşārthasiddhyupāya, both the ascetics and the householder should "court voluntarily death at the end of life", thinking that only sallekhana is a pious death.[27] TheSilappadikaram (Epic of the Anklet) by the Jain prince-turned-monk, Ilango Adigal, mentionsSallekhana by the Jain nun, Kaundi Adigal.[20]
InSouth India, especiallyKarnataka, amemorial stone or footprint is erected to commemorate the death of a person who observedSallekhana. This is known asNishidhi,Nishidige orNishadiga. The term is derived from the Sanskrit rootSid orSad which means "to attain" or "waste away".[1]
TheseNishidhis detail the names, dates, the duration of the vow, and other austerities performed by the person who observed the vow. The earliestNishidhis (6th to 8th century) mostly have an inscription on the rock without any symbols. This style continued until the 10th century when footprints were added alongside the inscription. After the 11th century,Nishidhis are inscribed on slabs or pillars with panels and symbols. These slabs or pillars were frequently erected inmandapas (pillared pavilions), nearbasadi (temples), or sometimes as an inscription on the door frame or pillars of the temple.[1]
InShravanabelgola in Karnataka, ninety-threeNishidhis are found ranging from circa the 6th century to the 19th century. Fifty-four of them belong to the period circa the 6th to the 8th century. It is believed that a large number ofNishidhis at Shravanabelgola follow the earlier tradition. Several inscriptions after 600 CE record thatBhadrabahu observed the vow atopChandragiri Hill at Sharavnabelagola. Historians such asR. K. Mookerji consider the accounts unproven.[28][29][30][31]
An undatedinscription in oldKannada script is found on theNishidhi from Doddahundi nearTirumakudalu Narasipura in Karnataka. Historians such asJ. F. Fleet,I. K. Sarma, and E.P. Rice have dated it to 840 or 869 CE by its textual context.[32] The memorial stone has a unique depiction infrieze of the ritual death (Sallekhana) of King Ereganga Nitimarga I (r. 853–869) of theWestern Ganga Dynasty. It was raised by the king's son Satyavakya.[33][34] In Shravanabelgola, the Kuge Brahmadeva pillar has aNishidhi commemorating Marasimha, another Western Ganga king. An inscription on the pillar in front of Gandhavarna Basadi commemorates Indraraja, the grandson of theRashtrakuta King Krishna III, who died in 982 after observing the vow.[1]
The inscriptions in South India suggestsallekhana was originally an ascetic practice that later extended to Jain householders. Its importance as an ideal death in the spiritual life of householders ceased by about the 12th century. The practice was revived in 1955 by the Digambara monk Acharya Santisagara.[2]
Sallekhana is a respected practice in theJain community.[35] It has not been a "practical or general goal" amongŚvetāmbara Jains for many years. It was revived amongDigambara monks.[2] In 1955, AcharyaShantisagar, a Digambara monk took the vow because of his inability to walk without help and his weak eye-sight.[36][37][38] In 1999, AcharyaVidyanand, another Digambara monk, took a twelve-year-long vow.[39]
Between 1800 and 1992, at least 37 instances ofSallekhana are recorded in Jain literature. There were 260 and 90 recorded Sallekhana deaths among Śvetāmbara and Digambara Jains respectively between 1993 and 2003. According to Jitendra Shah, the Director of L D Institute of Indology inAhmedabad, an average of about 240 Jains practiceSallekhana each year in India. Most of them are not recorded or noticed.[40] Statistically,Sallekhana is undertaken both by men and women of all economic classes and among the educationally forward Jains. It is observed more often by women than men.[41]
Jain texts make a clear distinction between theSallekhana and suicide.[42] Its dualistic theology differentiates between soul and matter. The soul is reborn in the Jain belief based on accumulated karma, how one dies contributes to the karma accumulation, and a pious death reduces the negative karmic attachments.[2][43][44] The preparation forsallekhana must begin early, much before the approach of death, and when death is imminent, the vow ofSallekhana is observed by progressively denying the body and the passions.[45]
The comparison ofSallekhana with suicide is debated since the early time of Jainism. The early Buddhist Tamil epicKundalakesi compared it to suicide. It is refuted in the contemporary Tamil Jain literature such as inNeelakesi.[20]
Professor S. A. Jain cites differences between the motivations behind suicide and those behind Sallekhana to distinguish them:
It is argued that it is suicide since there is voluntary severance of life etc. No, it is not suicide, as there is no passion. Without attachment etc, there is no passion in this undertaking. A person who kills himself by means of poison, weapon, etc, swayed by attachment, aversion or infatuation, commits suicide. But he who practices holy death is free from desire, anger, and delusion. Hence it is not suicide.[46]
Champat Rai Jain, a Jainist scholar, wrote in 1934:
Soul is a simple substance and as such immortal. Death is for compounds whose dissolution is termed disintegration and death is when it has reference to a living organism, that is a compound of spirit and matter. By dying in the proper way will is developed, and it is a great asset for the future life of the soul, which, as a simple substance, will survive bodily dissolution and death. The true idea ofSallekhana is only this when death does appear at last one should know how to die, that is one should die like a man, not like a beast, bellowing and panting and making vain efforts to avoid the unavoidable.[47]
Modern-era Indian activists have questioned this rationale, calling the voluntary choice of death an evil similar tosati, and have attempted to legislate and judicially act against this religious custom.[48] Article 21 of theConstitution of India, 1950, guarantees theright to life to all persons within the territory of India and its states. InGian Kaur vs The State Of Punjab, the state high court ruled, "... 'right to life' is a natural right embodied in Article 21 but suicide is an unnatural termination or extinction of life and, therefore, incompatible and inconsistent with the concept of the right to life".[49]
Nikhil Soni vs Union of India (2006), a case filed in theRajasthan High Court, citing theAruna Ramchandra Shanbaug vs Union Of India case related toeuthanasia, and theGian Kaur case, argued, "No person has a right to take his own life consciously, as the right to life does not include the right to end the life voluntarily." So the petitioner citedSallekhana as suicide and thus punishable under Section 309 (attempt to commit suicide).[50][51] The case also extended to those who helped facilitate the deaths of individuals observingSallekhana, finding they were culpable under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) with aiding and abetting an act of suicide. It was also argued thatSallekhana "serves as a means of coercing widows and elderly relatives into taking their own lives".[41][52] An attempt to commit suicide was a crime underSection 309 of theIndian Penal Code.[51]
In response, the Jain community argued that prohibiting the practice is a violation of theirfreedom of religion, afundamental right guaranteed by Article 15 and Article 25 of the Constitution of India.[53][50][41] The bookSallekhana Is Not Suicide by former JusticeT. K. Tukol was widely cited in the court[50] which opined that "Sallekhana as propounded in the Jaina scriptures is not suicide."[54]
The Rajasthan High Court stated that "[The Constitution] does not permit nor include under Article 21 the right to take one's own life, nor can it include the right to take life as an essential religious practice under Article 25 of the Constitution". It further added that it is not established thatSallekhana is an essential practise of Jainism and therefore not covered by Article 25 (1). So the High Court banned the practice in August 2015 making it punishable under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 309 (attempt to commit suicide).[55] Members of the Jain community held nationwide protest marches against the ban onSallekhana.[20][56][57][58]
Advocate Suhrith Parthasarathy criticised the judgement of the High Court and wrote, "Sallekhana is not an exercise in trying to achieve an unnatural death, but is rather a practice intrinsic to a person's ethical choice to live with dignity until death." He also pointed out that the Supreme Court in theGian Kaur case explicitly recognises the right to live with human dignity within the ambit of the right to life. He further cited that the Supreme Court wrote in the said case, "[The right to life] may include the right of a dying man to alsodie with dignity when his life is ebbing out. But the right to die with dignity at the end of life is not to be confused or equated with the right to die an unnatural death curtailing the natural span of life."[59][49]
On 31 August 2015, theSupreme Court admitted the petition by Akhil Bharat Varshiya Digambar Jain Parishad and granted leave. It stayed the decision of the High Court and lifted the ban on the practice.[6][60][61][62]
In April 2017, the Indian parliament decriminalised suicide by passing theMental Healthcare Act, 2017.[63][64]
There are similar practices in other religions, likePrayopavesa inHinduism[65] andSokushinbutsu inBuddhism.[66]
The ancient and medieval scholars of Indian religions discussed suicide, and a person's right to voluntarily choose death. Suicide is approved by Buddhist, Hindu and Jaina texts.[67][68] For those who have renounced the world (sannyasi, sadhu, yati, bhikshu), the Indian texts discuss when ritual choice of death is appropriate and what means of voluntarily ending one's life are appropriate.[69] TheSannyasa Upanishads, for example, discuss many methods of religious death, such as slowing then stopping the consumption of foods and drinks to death (similar tosallekhana), walking into a river and drowning, entering fire, a path of the heroes, and the Great Journey.[70][note 3]
Scholars disagree whether "voluntary religious death" discussed inIndian religions is the same as other forms of suicide.[71][72][73]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
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