Saṃvatsari (Paryuṣaṇa)

When it falls

The last of the eight days of Paryuṣaṇa for Śvetāmbara Jains, the fourth or fifth day of the bright half of Bhādrapada, in late August or September. Digambara Jains keep ten days (Daś Lakṣaṇa) starting the next day, with forgiveness (Kṣamāvāṇī) on the day after they end.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

Paryuṣaṇa is the Jain year's central observance: eight or ten days of fasting, study and self-examination during the monsoon, when the monks had settled in one place. Saṃvatsarī, the annual day, closes it with the year's pratikramaṇa, a review of every act of the past twelve months.

The day ends with the words micchāmi dukkaḍaṃ: may whatever wrong I have done be without effect. Each person says it to everyone they know, by visit, by letter, and now by message, and the year cannot begin until every quarrel has been asked forgiveness for. Forgiveness is not asked for a wrong you know of; it is asked for all of them, known and unknown.

How the day is kept

• Fasting: many keep a complete fast on the day itself, some for the whole eight days (aṭṭhāī), taking only boiled water in daylight.
• The Kalpa Sūtra is read through the eight days, with the birth of Mahāvīra and the fourteen dreams shown to the assembly.
• The saṃvatsarī pratikramaṇa in the evening: three hours of confession in the temple hall, standing and sitting in a fixed sequence.
• Micchāmi dukkaḍaṃ said to family, friends, colleagues, and to those with whom the year went badly.

More holy days