Sallekhana

Also called: Santhara · Topic: Buddhism, Jainism and Heterodox Traditions · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Sallekhana (also called Santhara) is a Jaina vow in which a person, close to the end of life, slowly gives up food and then water, and dies peacefully with a calm mind. It matters because it shows how far Jainism takes renunciation and self-control. It also became a court and constitutional issue in 2015.

Explanation

Background: why Jainism has such a vow

• The goal is freedom from rebirth.
• Jainism teaches that the cycle of birth and rebirth is shaped by karma (the result of your own actions).

• Asceticism (hard self-discipline) and penance (suffering accepted to wipe out past karma) free a person from this cycle.

• Renunciation is central. In Jainism, monastic existence is a necessary condition of salvation. Sallekhana is the last step of a life of renunciation: giving up the body itself.

• Fasting is an old Jaina practice. Mahāvīra practised ascetic discipline for 12 years, including fasting, before he gained 'infinite knowledge'.
• It also ties to aparigraha (non-possession, or detachment from material things). In the end, a person gives up even food and the body.

Main features

• Meaning of the word: sallekhana means "thinning out". The body is slowly thinned by fasting, and the passions (anger, greed, attachment) are thinned too.
• When it is allowed: only when death is already near and cannot be avoided. Examples are very old age, an illness that cannot be cured, or a severe famine.
• How it is done:
• Food is reduced step by step. Then only liquids are taken. In the end, even water is given up.
• The person usually takes the vow with the permission and guidance of a teacher (guru).

• The person forgives others, asks for forgiveness, and spends the last days in prayer and meditation.

• Who can take it: monks, nuns, and also lay Jains (householders).

• Other names: Santhara is the name most used among Shvetāmbara Jains. Samādhi-maraṇa ("peaceful death") is also used.

Why Jains say it is not suicide

• Suicide usually comes from anger, despair or strong emotion. Jain teaching says that kind of death is itself violence (himsa).
• Sallekhana is meant to be calm, slow and free of passion. It is taken openly, with the community's knowledge, and only when death is close anyway.
• So for Jains, sallekhana fits ahimsa (non-injury, in act and in thought) instead of breaking it.

Results and the modern debate

• 2015, Rajasthan High Court: it held that Santhara was like suicide, so it could be punished under criminal law.
• 2015, Supreme Court: the same year, the Supreme Court stayed (put on hold) the High Court order, so Jains could go on with the practice while the case is heard.
• The core question: is it an essential religious practice protected by the right to freedom of religion, or is it suicide that the state must stop?

Time, place and evidence

• Period: an old Jaina practice. Jaina tradition links it to the time of the early tīrthankaras (the 24 "ford-makers" who guide people across the river of existence) and to Mahāvīra's teaching of fasting and penance.
• Key place: Shravanabelagola, Karnataka.
• Digambara tradition says that c. 310 BCE, after a 12-year famine, the monk Bhadrabāhu and Chandragupta Maurya (the first Mauryan king, who had become a Jaina monk) led a migration south to Shravanabelagola [1][2].

• According to the same tradition, both of them later died there by sallekhana. Treat this as tradition, not proven fact. Britannica warns that these sect accounts are partisan and were written long after the events (the earliest Digambara account is from the 10th century CE) [1][2].

• Evidence:

• Jaina texts, such as the Tattvārtha Sūtra (traditionally said to be by Umāsvāti), set out the rules of the vow.
• Many memorial inscriptions on the hills of Shravanabelagola record monks, nuns and lay people who ended their lives by sallekhana.

• The Jaina canon (Agamas) keeps the scriptures of the tradition [3].

• Modern record: the 2015 Rajasthan High Court judgement and the Supreme Court's stay of it.

Don't confuse with

• Suicide: suicide is usually sudden and driven by emotion. Sallekhana is slow, public, approved by a guru, and allowed only when death is already near.
• Gandhian hunger strike (fast): a political fast to press for a demand, which ends when the demand is met. Sallekhana has no worldly demand. Its aim is spiritual freedom from karma.
• Euthanasia: here someone else ends a life, or stops treatment, to end suffering. In Sallekhana the person gives up food by their own choice as a religious vow.
• Sati: the burning of a widow, which was often forced and was later banned by law. Sallekhana is a personal vow open to men and women, and it involves no violent act.

Prelims Hooks

• Sallekhana = Santhara: the Jaina vow of slowly giving up food and water at the end of life. Sallekhana means "thinning out" of body and passions.
• Rajasthan High Court (2015) treated Santhara as punishable like suicide. The Supreme Court stayed that order in 2015.
• Chandragupta Maurya + Bhadrabāhu + Shravanabelagola (Karnataka): by Digambara tradition, they migrated there c. 310 BCE after a 12-year famine [1][2]. The same tradition says Chandragupta died there by sallekhana.
• Trap: Sallekhana is not only for monks. Lay Jains may also take it.
• Trap: it is a Jaina practice, not a Buddhist one. Buddhism followed the middle path, which rejects extreme self-mortification.

Mains Points

• The furthest point of Jaina renunciation.
• Jainism makes renunciation necessary for salvation and asks for strict ahimsa and aparigraha.
• Sallekhana is the last stage of this: a person gives up even the body, slowly, without violence or passion.

• Compare it with Buddhism's middle path. This helps explain why Jainism stayed smaller and stricter.

• Faith against law: a live heritage debate.

• The 2015 court cases raise a real question. Is an old religious practice protected by freedom of religion, or does the state's duty to protect life come first?

• A good answer gives both views. Jains say a calm death taken with full awareness is not suicide. Critics worry that old, ill or weak people may be pressured into it.

• Using sources with care.

• Stories that Chandragupta Maurya and Bhadrabāhu died by sallekhana at Shravanabelagola come from sect accounts written centuries later [1][2].
• The memorial inscriptions at Shravanabelagola show the practice was real and continued over a long time. Use both kinds of source, and do not treat legend as fact.

Related concepts

• Jainism
• Tirthankara
• Rishabhanatha
• Parshvanatha
• Mahavira
• Kevala jnana
• Ahimsa
• Karma
• Five vows of Jainism
• Aparigraha

Read more

• Mahāvīra and the message of the Jainas