The Evolution and Implications of a Ritual Stance

A number of Sanskrit works from medieval Kashmir, including the first known historical work, deal repeatedly with both single and mass suicides as a means of political action. In India the dharma texts generally prohibit suicide, yet these instances of suicides to obtain redress enjoyed great prestige, as they were seen to share the attributes of the holy death of ascetics or of heroes.

Though the phenomenon is particularly frequent in the texts examined, it is by no means confined to Kashmir nor to medieval times, but in fact covers the whole of the subcontinent and a span of time that stretches from the Upaniṣads to Gandhi. The present study investigates the common cultural background that gave this particular stand popular appeal and political support, so that it could be used as an effective weapon against abuses of authority.

A lexical enquiry on the evolving meaning of prāya and prāyopaveśa compared to later terms such as dharṇa and trāga shows how this practice, that in the dharma texts seems confined to the claiming of a debt, in fact extended to cover a whole range of issues. The first instance of this sitting in fast, found in the Kauṣitakyopaniṣad, has actually an ascetic fast against a village that had failed to give him food for alms.

Attitudes towards all types of suicide were investigated in the dharma texts, in the epics and in some Buddhist and Jain cases.