Abstract

Asceticism was the primary context for the Jain fast to death (sallekhanā) in ancient India. Within the Jain imaginaire of extreme asceticism—characterized by purification practices such as prolonged fasting and yoga—sallekhanā was not a radical departure but a logical extension of the idea that liberation is achieved through the cessation of all bodily and mental activity. Fasting to death was a ritualized process that, ideally, involved several steps, from seeking and granting forgiveness for any harm caused, to ritually inspecting the area for the final fast, and formally renouncing food and water until the end of life. This talk offers an analysis of sallekhanā as the ascetic ideal in early Jainism, paying special attention to the body discourses associated with the fast. We will see how within Jain asceticism, similar to some Buddhist and Hindu traditions, the body is perceived as a fundamental obstacle. Viewed as an impure, polluting entity, it hinders the experience of the pure self. In the context of sallekhanā, vivid depictions of the impure body are purposefully employed to evoke disgust in the ascetic, helping him to cultivate the necessary detachment when undertaking his final, lifelong fast.

About Speaker

Claire Maes is Assistant Professor at the Department of Indology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Prior to this, she held a Postdoctoral Fellowship from The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies and served as a Sanskrit lecturer in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She also taught Sanskrit and Prakrit at Ghent University, her alma matter. She specializes in Indian Buddhist and Jain monasticism, focusing on issues of othering and identity negotiations. She also examines Jain concepts of death and dying. The practice of fasting to death in Jainism is the subject of her second doctorate (Habilitation), which she is currently pursuing. Her recent publications include ‘Sallekhanā and the End-of-Life Option of Voluntarily Stopping of Eating and Drinking: An Ethical Argument to Consider the Jain Practice of Fasting to Death as Different from Suicide’ (2023), ‘The Jain Fast to Death: Exploring Some Legal, Medical, and Philosophical Perspectives’ (2024), and ‘I heard it through the grapevine. Gossip and Rumour in the Pali Canon as Strategies to Deal with Religious Others’ (in print, 2025).

Sponsored by: South Asia Institute (UT-Austin)