Jain Sect's Death Ritual Clashes With Indian Government's Laws About Suicide

“Just as English often flattens translations from Sanskrit by describing all nine varieties of love as ‘love,’ so it is with death.”
        Normal  0          false  false  false    EN-US  JA  X-NONE                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             /* Style Definitions */table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Cambria;mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}  The body of 74-year-old Amarchand Kasawan, a Jain scholor who died Monday, after observing "Santhara" is carried during a funeral procession in Ajmer, India, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006.

The body of 74-year-old Amarchand Kasawan, a Jain scholor who died Monday, after observing "Santhara" is carried during a funeral procession in Ajmer, India, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PUNE, India — All week, people streamed in and out of the handsome bungalow where the Lodha family lives, eager to witness for themselves the amazing event that was occurring there.

On a bed in a corner of a large sitting room, surrounded by a crowd of reverent visitors, the family’s 92-year-old patriarch, Manikchand Lodha, was fasting to death. It was the culmination of an act of santhara, a voluntary, systematic starvation ritual undertaken every year by several hundred members of the austere, ancient Jain religion.

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