SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Jaina metaphysics is dualistic. Living beings are regarded as products of the amalgamation of the immortal substances, soul and matter. From the point of view of Jaina doctrine, the approaching disintegration of a gross body is not a calamity, but an opportunity. Today, the complete customary sequence of mortuary practices of and for a Jaina mendicant comprises seven distinct rituals and ceremonies, with complex sub-routines, performed by the dying mendicant him-/herself, by members of the local mendicant community. Basic disciplinary rules for the removal of the corpse of a common mendicant were prescribed in the early canonical BKS 4.24. A funerary palanquin was once regarded as the exclusive privilege of royalty, and, until recently, could only be paraded in public with permission of the king. According to the Jaina scriptures, the souls of well-behaved mendicants will inevitably be reincarnated as one or other of the many types of gods in the heavens of the upper-world.