Gwalior: When Ekatmavamati, 48, finally died her body, still in the lotus position, was put into a palanquin and carried in a procession to the cremation ground. For she had performed Sanlekhana-death by invitation. That made her the Mata or Mother, until the next person decided to do Sanlekhana. That won't be long, for in Madhya Pradesh, there's a death through Sanlekhana almost every fortnight.

DEATH AS CELEBRATION: Ekatmavamati on her final journey

The literal translation of this ancient Jain rite is "purging of all ills" from the body. A person who undertakes it recites mantras, reduces the intake of food, and eventually giving up eating, leading to death by starvation. "Sanlekhana is not suicide. It is permitted only under four circumstances," says Aryika Purnamati, chief disciple of Acharya Vidyasagar, who seems to be the guiding spirit behind this rite. These are: sure death through accident or attack by enemy, when in captivity or due to a fatal illness. Several old people undertake Sanlekhana at the Udasin Digamabar Jain Ashram in Indore.

Ekatmavamati was suffering from a severe intestinal infection. She approached Acharya Vidyasagar and was allowed to do Sanlekhana, says Aryika Purnamati. She had stopped eating for two months before she died. For the last five days, she did not drink water. A tough wait for the final call.

Sanlekhana lies in the grey area between euthanasia and suicide, both of which are illegal in India. Madhya Pradesh DGP A.N. Singh says the police has not taken any action out of deference to religious sentiments, and there have been no complaints from relatives. "Minds in weak bodies turn towards religion when the end is near," says psychiatrist S.K. Jain. "It is basically the absence of hope."

-Neeraj Mishra

THE GOLDEN PUMPKIN

If you haven't heard of Debabrata Biswas, you haven't missed much. He's 56, general secretary of the Forward Bloc and Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal. He wants an apology from Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee for paying "homage" to Netaji Subhas Bose's supposed ashes in the Renkoji temple in Japan. Vajpayee had visited the temple recently and made some carefully vague remarks on the ashes, supposedly Netaji's, kept there. The Forward Bloc, the party Bose founded, refuses to believe he died in an air crash in 1945. The Netaji industry holds he was imprisoned by Stalin.

Biswas is upset Vajpayee has lent legitimacy to Renkoji especially when the "matter was sub judice". He says, "Countrymen are very annoyed with the prime minister's action as he himself appointed the Mukherjee Commission to go into the mystery of Netaji's disappearance." The commission, on its part, has visited locations ranging from London to Faizabad in search of clues. Biswas and the Forward Bloc-previous demands include a ban on Nirad C. Chaudhuri's Thy Hand, Great Anarch for casting aspersions on Netaji's military tactics-are still waiting for the Springing Tiger of Siberia.

SIGNPOSTS

DIED: Pramila Dandavate, 73, former MP and women's rights activist.

LAUNCHED: The Shakti Dal, a political party, by Maneka Gandhi.

DIED: S.S. Puri, civil servant, India's former ambassador to the EEC.

BIFURCATED: The district of Midnapore, the largest in West Bengal.

DIED: Padma Bhushan recipient Anil Agarwal, 53, chairperson, Centre for Science and Environment. Doyen of green movement in India.

APPOINTED: Justice (retired) Jagannadha Rao, as chairman of the 16th Law Commission.

APPOINTED: Nafisa Ali, socialite and former swimmer, to the executive of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee.

NAMED: Joe Paul Ancheri and O. Bem Bem as the best male and female football players of the year, by the All India Football Federation.