History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t2.60

v5.c74.t2.60

The psychological background behind the religious suicide at Prayāga and other places is not difficult to realise. Centuries of philosophical thought had made a very deep impression on the minds of all people that the soul has to submit to a never-ending cycle of births and deaths. Ancient scriptures had offered a release in two ways viz. by *tattvajñāna* and by suicide at a tīrtha. Death had no great terror for the pilgrim who submitted to various inconveniences and privations ungrudgingly. If one is determined to put an end to *saṁsāra* by taking one's life, what nobler environment could have been imagined or indicated than at Prayāga, where two mighty rivers flowing from the sacred Himālaya unite and carry on unceasingly their work of fertilizing the land and bringing prosperity and solace to millions of needy and anxious people?