Inside India's Sacred Heart

Exclusive excerpts from bestselling author william dalrymple’s forthcoming book on a modern nation’s ancient beliefs.

Two hills of blackly gleaming granite, smooth as glass, rise from a thickly wooded landscape of banana plantations and jagged palmyra palms. It is dawn. Below lies the ancient pilgrimage town of Sravanabelagola, where the crumbling walls of monasteries, temples and dharamsalas cluster around a grid of dusty, red earth roads. The roads converge on a great rectangular tank. The tank is dotted with the spreading leaves and still-closed buds of floating lotus flowers. Already, despite the early hour, the first pilgrims are gathering.

For more than 2,000 years, this Karnatakan town has been sacred to the Jains. It was here, in the third century BC, that the first Emperor of India, Chandragupta Maurya, embraced the Jain religion and died through a self-imposed fast to the death, the emperor’s chosen atonement for the killings for which he had been responsible in his life of conquest. Twelve hundred years later, in AD 981, a Jain general commissioned the largest monolithic statue in India, sixty feet high, on the top of the larger of the two hills, Vindhyagiri. This was an image of another royal Jain hero, Prince Bahubali.

It was in a temple just short of the summit that I first laid eyes on Prasannamati Mataji. I had seen the tiny, slender, barefoot figure of the nun in her white sari bounding up the steps above me as I began my ascent. She climbed quickly, with a pot of water made from a coconut shell in one hand, and a peacock fan in the other. As she climbed, she gently wiped each step with the fan in order to make sure she didn’t stand on, hurt or kill a single living creature on her ascent of the hill: one of the set rules of pilgrimage for a Jain muni or ascetic.

It was only when I got to the Vadegall Basadi, the temple which lies just below the summit, that I caught up with her — and saw that despite her bald head Mataji was in fact a surprisingly young and striking woman. She had large, wide-apart eyes, olive skin and an air of self-contained confidence that expressed itself in a vigour and ease in the way she held her body. But there was also something sad and wistful about her expression as she went about her devotions; and this, combined with her unexpected youth and beauty, left one wanting to know more.

It was only the following day that I applied for, and was given, a formal audience — or as the monks called it, darshan — with Mataji at the monastery guest house; and it was only the day after that, as we continued our conversations, that I began to learn what had brought about her air of unmistakable melancholy.

“We believe that all attachments bring suffering,” said Prasannamati Mataji, after we had been talking for some time. “This is why we are supposed to give them up. It is one of the main principles of Jainism — we call it aparigraha. This was why I left my family, and why I gave away my wealth.”

We were talking in the annex of a monastery prayer hall, and Mataji was sitting cross-legged on a bamboo mat, raised slightly above me on a low dais. The top of her white sari was now modestly covering her plucked head. “For many years, I fasted or ate at most only once a day,” she continued. “Like other nuns, I often experienced hunger and thirst. I tried to show compassion to all living creatures, and to avoid all forms of violence, passion or delusion. I wandered the roads of India barefoot.” As she said this, the nun ran a hand up the hard and callused sole of her unshod foot. “Every day I suffered the pain of thorns and blisters. All this was part of my effort to shed my last attachments in this illusory world.”

“But,” she said, “I still had one attachment — though of course I didn’t think of it in that way.” “What was that?” I asked.

“My friend, Prayogamati,” she replied. “For twenty years we were inseparable companions, sharing everything. For our safety, we Jain nuns are meant to travel together, in groups or in pairs. It never occurred to me that I was breaking any of our rules. But because of my close friendship with her, I formed not just an attachment, but a strong attachment — and that left an opening for suffering. But I only realised this after she died.”

There was a pause, and I had to encourage Mataji to continue. “In this stage of life we need company,” she said. “You know, a companion with whom we can share ideas and feelings. After Prayogamati left her body, I felt this terrible loneliness. In truth, I feel it to this day. But her time was fixed. When she fell ill — first with TB and then malaria — her pain was so great she decided to take sallekhana, even though she was aged only thirty-six.” “Sallekhana?”

“It’s the ritual fast to the death. We Jains regard it as the culmination of our life as ascetics. It is what we all aim for, and work towards as the best route to Nirvana....

“First you fast one day a week, then you eat only on alternate days: one day you take food, the next you fast. One by one, you give up different types of food. You give up rice, then fruits, then vegetables, then juice, then buttermilk. Finally you take only water, and then you have that only on alternate days. Eventually, when you are ready, you give up that too. If you do it very gradually, there is no suffering at all. The body is cooled down, so that you can concentrate inside on the soul, and on erasing all your bad karma.”

She smiled: “You have to understand that for us death is full of excitement. It’s just as exciting as visiting a new landscape or a new country: we feel excited at a new life, full of possibilities.” “But you could hardly have felt excited when your friend left you like this.” “No,” she said, her face falling. “It is hard for those who are left.” She stopped. For a moment Mataji lost her composure; but she checked herself.

“After Prayogamati died, I could not bear it. I wept, even though we are not supposed to. Any sort of emotion is considered a hindrance to the attainment of Enlightenment. We are meant to cultivate indifference — but still I remember her.”

Again her voice faltered. She slowly shook her head. “The attachment is there even now,” she said. “I can’t help it. We lived together for twenty years. How can I forget?”

“Do you think you will meet her in another life?” I said.

“It is uncertain,” said Mataji. “Our scriptures are full of people who meet old friends and husbands and wives and teachers from previous lives. But no one can control these things.”
Again Mataji paused, and looked out of the window. “Though we both may have many lives ahead of us, in many worlds,” she said, “who knows whether we will meet again? And if we do meet, in our new bodies, who is to say that we will recognise each other?”

She looked at me sadly as I got up to go and said simply. “These things are not in our hands.”

William Dalrymple’s ‘Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India’ is published by Bloomsbury/Penguin in India on October 14

history of the beespanth in digamber jainism

Let me discuss with you all about the worship of the devis(female goddesses) in India.
In the times of Harrappan civilization, there are evidences of the worship of some female deities.Some says that these were the godess mother earth-though nothing can be confirmly said.

In the vedas, almost no female goddess has been worshiped.

But, the puranas of hindus, jains $ the buddhist describes female deities in some or the other way- the hindus has devi Laxmi, Saraswati,Kali etc while the jains have the Shasan devis, Yakshnis etc, $ the buddhists have Tara devi.

Historians regard that the time of the initiation of the importance of the female godesses in the above 3 religion was nearly the same i.e. the gupta periad.

In south, the worship of the Shasan devis amongst the jains is very popular.In fact, the whole procedure of worship in the south India ( in jains) is nearly the same as the hindus has anywhere in india.Jains offer flowers, fresh fruits, sweets , panchamrit to Jinendra dev, moreover the worship of the devis is very much importaant $ we can say that it is a part $ parcel of their religiou life.

It must be analysed in a scientific way as to why this kind of hinduoid ( i.e. like hindus) worship is seen in south indian jains.

Firstly I would like to clealy say that both graheet & agraheet mithyaatva is very popular amongst the north indian jains too.

Now, let us do the analysis of what happened in south:-
- the time which historians call as'the golden period in the indian history' was in reality a dark period for the jainism & buddhism.

-this was the time somewhere around 800 A.D. At this time the ever-important Aadishankaraacharya was born.

- the atrocities on the shramans were at their peak in his time.
- Jainism was getting the royal patronage in south , so it was taken as the major rival in the south by the addvitvaadis .

While buddhism was enjoying the royal patronage at most of the other places, so it was treated as the major rival.

- Atrocities on jains in south included the killing of munis& shravaks, destruction of temples , coversion of the temples into that of the other religion, forced conversion of the jains into other religion.

- Somehow , the theory of 'the survival of the fittest' of Darwin played its role & there occured many favourable adaptations according to the then prevelent circumstances- & the result was that the whole of the rituals & practices or rather what we see in a religion from outside were such that it was difficult to differentiate between the jainism & the hinduism.

- Devis with many hands & weapons etc were started worshipped by the jains.
- Navraatra was started celebrated by the jains for these devis
- Javaareys ( the plants of wheat grown for devis in navraatras) were started to be offered to the devis by the jains.
- And, the 'Samaysaar' was non-formally banned as it clearely contradicted the then prevelent practices.

Gradually, the devis became an essential part of the jain temples- no temple would have been thought of without the pratishtha of the devi & the devtas

- Then in front of the veetraag idol itself peole worshipped the devis.
- A time came when these devis got more importance than even the tirthankaras.
Nothing was significant & distinct in jainism which could attract the masses , so the number of the followers declined but still the rulr of Darwin worked & the fittest survived - still lakhs of jains live in south but their number can't be even compared with what it used to be in the pre-shankaraacharya era

Only thing which could be taken as merit when we talk of that time is that - these fittest jains were able to preserve the religious scriptures & many of the ancient jain temples.

- Again, it would be worthwhile to mention that the devi-devataa's worship was also popular in the north India in the medieval period.

The medieval period saw the famous'Bhaktimovement' in hinduism & the 'sufi movement' in Islam.Really, there was something which was common in all these devlopments in the religious field & this was that the people were away from reading the holy books which could give them the real knowlege & that the age-old ignorance had created a lot of superstitions & irrational practices in the society( i.e. in all religions)

It was thus very rightly regarded as the'dark period' of the history.- At this time it was quiet easy & rather a forward step for the people to accept the new practices & to again go-back to read & understand the original texts.
Thus, this time saw many great developments in jainism too , like for eg. Pt. Todarmalji, Pt.Banaarsidasjee & so on.-These persons were highly devoted in the study of the original jain texts & they braught many refoms in jainism -
BUT ,as it always happens that the age-old practices are not easily given-up & this leads to a clash between the old & the new.- This happened in jain socviety too, & we saw a division of what is called as tera & bees panths of digamber jainism