Das Lakshana and the ten virtues
The Digambara observance of Paryushan Parva runs ten days, and takes one virtue as the subject of each. It begins on Bhadrapada Shukla Panchami.
Each is named with the prefix uttama, supreme — uttama kshama, uttama mardava, and so on. The prefix is part of the name as it is used, not an honorific added in the retelling.
Śvetāmbara practice recognises these virtues but does not structure its eight days around them, which is why they are set out here rather than in the shared calendar entry.
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Day 1 उत्तम क्षमा Uttama Kshama · Forbearance
Not the suppression of anger but its absence — bearing provocation without the wish to answer it. Taken first because the days end in the asking of forgiveness, and there is no point asking for what one cannot give.
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Day 2 उत्तम मार्दव Uttama Mardava · Humility
Softness of mind, and specifically the absence of pride in birth, learning, wealth, appearance or power. The tradition lists the forms pride takes rather than treating it as one thing.
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Day 3 उत्तम आर्जव Uttama Arjava · Straightforwardness
Alignment of thought, speech and act — not honesty as a policy but the absence of any gap between what is meant and what is shown.
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Day 4 उत्तम शौच Uttama Shaucha · Purity
Freedom from greed. The word means cleanliness, and the tradition reads it inward: what soils is wanting, not dirt.
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Day 5 उत्तम सत्य Uttama Satya · Truth
Speech that is true, and also the restraint not to speak a truth that harms. A truth told to wound fails the vow it appears to keep.
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Day 6 उत्तम संयम Uttama Samyama · Restraint
Control of the senses and care for life — the two are treated as one discipline, since inattention is how most harm is actually done.
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Day 7 उत्तम तप Uttama Tapa · Austerity
Fasting and other austerities, undertaken to wear away karma already adhering rather than to earn merit. The distinction matters: tapa is subtraction, not accumulation.
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Day 8 उत्तम त्याग Uttama Tyaga · Renunciation
Giving — of food, of knowledge, of protection, of fearlessness. Charity and renunciation are the same act seen from two sides.
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Day 9 उत्तम आकिंचन्य Uttama Akinchanya · Non-possession
Holding nothing as one’s own, inwardly as well as outwardly. The Digambara ascetic’s nakedness is this virtue carried to its end.
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Day 10 उत्तम ब्रह्मचर्य Uttama Brahmacharya · Chastity
Continence, and more broadly dwelling in the self rather than in the senses. The final day, Anant Chaturdashi, is the fullest observance of the ten.
How the days close
The tenth day is Anant Chaturdashi, on Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturdashi, and is the fullest observance of the ten. The day after is Kshamavani Parva, on Ashvin Krishna Pratipada, when forgiveness is asked of every living being and granted to every one — the Digambara counterpart to the Śvetāmbara Samvatsari.
The greeting exchanged is uttama kshama, or in wider usage micchami dukkadam — may whatever wrong I have done be without effect. It is said to everyone, not only to those one has quarrelled with, and that is rather the point of it.
Written for Jain Times. Corrections are welcome — see sources and licences.