Shravana Krishna Dvadashi

पर्युषण

Paryushana · also Paryushan Parva

Eight days of fasting, study and reflection, concluding with Samvatsari on Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi, when forgiveness is asked of everyone.

The most concentrated period of the Svetambara year: eight days at the height of the monsoon, when mendicants are already settled in one place for the rainy season and the lay community turns inward with them.

The days are given to fasting, to listening and to accounting. The Kalpa Sutra is read in full, including the lives of the Tirthankaras and the rules of the rainy-season retreat; many keep a complete fast on one or more days, and a smaller number keep the whole eight. The fasting is not the point so much as the visibility of it — the community does this together, in the open, and that is what makes it hold.

The eighth day is Samvatsari, and it is the reason for the other seven. On it every person asks forgiveness of every other, for anything done, said or thought, knowingly or not. The formula is Micchami Dukkadam: may the wrong be without effect. It is asked of family and of strangers, of employees and of rivals, and it is expected to be granted; a request refused is understood to be the refuser’s problem rather than the asker’s.

How it is kept

• Pratikramana — the formal review of the year’s conduct — is performed at length, and on Samvatsari it runs for hours.
• The Kalpa Sutra is read across the eight days, with the account of Mahavira’s birth given particular prominence.
• Fasting ranges from a single day to all eight; the ending of a long fast is marked publicly by the community.
• Forgiveness is asked in person where possible, and otherwise by letter or message, which is why Micchami Dukkadam arrives in so many inboxes at once.