Diwali: Renunciation Humanized and Riches Redeemed

Abstract I ended Part III by describing how the asceticism of Samvatsari and the well-being and increase celebrated at the Ganesh festival are dramatically counterposed, in a way that is emblematic both of the location of Jain communities in Indian society, and the ethical and aesthetic contrasts between renunciation and riches as lay religious values. I should like to end this part of the book with a consideration of the other major festival in the Jain religious year, Diwali (see Plates XIX–XXII). On the surface, Diwali could not be more different from Samvatsari, but the two festivals exhibit a different aspect of the same Jain ethos; mixing the same elements to produce a complementary effect.