Jain Guides

In-depth guides to Jain festivals, practice and scripture — written against the questions people actually ask, and grounded in primary Jain texts.

Svetambara Tradition

The white-clad tradition — festivals, practice and canon as Svetambara Jains keep them.

Svetambara Jainism

The white-clad tradition and its three living branches - Murtipujak, Sthanakvasi and Terapanth - what each holds, and how Svetambara practice differs from Digambara.

Paryushan Parva

The most important festival in the Jain year: eight days of fasting, scripture and self-examination that end in asking forgiveness of every living being.

Samvatsari and Michhami Dukkadam

The last day of Paryushan, when Jains ask forgiveness of every living being - and what the phrase everyone sends actually means.

Chaturmas

The four months when Jain monks and nuns stop walking - what the rains have to do with ahimsa, and what lay Jains take on.

Navpad Oli

Nine days, nine pads, one bland meal a day - the Ayambil Oli kept twice a year, and the story that carries it.

Snatra Puja

The temple rite that re-stages a Tirthankara's birth bath on Mount Meru - what is actually being enacted, stage by stage.

The Kalpa Sutra

The text read aloud across Paryushan: what is in it, who wrote it, and what happens on the day of the fourteen dreams.

The Jain Agamas

What is actually in the Svetambara canon, division by division - and why three traditions count the same scripture differently.

Pratikraman

'Turning back' - the structured self-review at the centre of Jain practice, performed daily by some and once a year by many.

Jain Fasting and Tapasya

What each fast actually permits, from skipping one meal to the year-long varshi tap - and the reasoning behind them.

Common to All Traditions

Observances and reference pages that hold across every Jain sect.

Food and Diet During Paryushan

Root vegetables, greens, and eating after sunset - the reasoning behind each restriction, and what people actually eat.

Jain Festival Calendar 2026

Every major date in the Jain year, with what each observance is for. Updated from the panchang each year.

The Jain Mahabharata

The epic as the Jain tradition tells it: Krishna's cousin the Tirthankara, a wedding abandoned for the animals' sake, and a war that ends in renunciation rather than victory.

Digambara Tradition

Where the sky-clad tradition observes differently.

Das Lakshana Parva

Ten days, ten virtues: the Digambara observance that follows Samvatsari, taken one dharma at a time.