The Unknown Pilgrims: The Voice of the Sadhvis

This book permits us to penetrate within one of the most ancient ascetic spirituality, that followed by some 6000 Jaina women ascetics. Written with their collaboration, it presents to the reader their life of radical renunciation of which one of the hallmarks is incessant pilgrimage, a regular shifting from one place to the next in a sustained striving towards self-purification, a striving of which the final goal is Nirvana. Here then we have before us the whole Jaina tradition, presented through scriptures, ancient texts, biographies, epigraphy and iconography. Here too we may observe its outworking in contemporary daily life and its contribution to inter-cultural and inter-monastic encounter. Furthermore, it is not without interest that this study finds its own proper place in an age which is rediscovering feminine values. At a time when so many people are taking a deep interest in Asian spiritualities we find here an original and strictly defined spiritual path and also a spiritual teaching whose strength and subtlety merit our attention and invites us to embark on an authentic spiritual journey.