Paryushana

The observance

Paryushana falls in the monsoon, when Jain mendicants suspend travel because the wet ground teems with life. The Svetambara observe eight days, the Digambara ten, under the name Das Lakshana, marking ten virtues in turn. Lay observance intensifies during the period: fasting ranges from the omission of a meal to complete abstention for the full span, and some undertake longer fasts still.

The Svetambara observance centres on the public recitation of the Kalpa Sutra, with the account of Mahavira's birth read on the fifth day. Temples are busy, study is undertaken, and charitable giving increases.

Forgiveness

The festival closes with Samvatsari, on which Jains perform pratikramana, a formal review of the year's conduct and confession of transgressions, and then seek forgiveness from everyone they may have harmed. The formula used is Micchami dukkadam — may the wrong I have done be of no account.

The request is not confined to the community or to those actually wronged. It is directed at all living beings, and it is made in person, by letter and now by message to relatives, colleagues and acquaintances. This annual clearing of accounts is the most socially visible feature of Jain practice, and its reciprocal form — each asking rather than granting — is characteristic of a tradition that treats harm as inevitable and unresolved obligation as a form of bondage.