An eight-year-old Indian girl who was due to receive a multimillion dollar diamond wealth has chosen to give up worldly pleasures and join a stringent religious order as a nun.
The girl was an heiress to the Sanghvi and Sons jewelry company until this week in the western city of Surat, known locally as “Diamond City” for its prominence in the global gem trade.
Her family are also members of the Jain faith, a small but ancient Indian religion that preaches non-violence, strict vegetarianism and love for all creatures great and small.
According to images shared on local media, she was feted in a four-day ceremony to herald her new vocation this week, which at one point saw her ride in a carriage pulled by an elephant,
After having all her hair removed, she went to a temple on Wednesday January 18 to exchange her ornate clothing for a simple white cotton outfit.
According to a witness to the event on Wednesday, the girl was known among members of Surat’s Jain community for her piousness even as a young child.
They added that the girl has been a frequent visitor to temple ceremonies and claimed that, “[She] has never watched television, movies or gone to malls and restaurants”.
The child is among the youngest individuals to have undergone the “diksha” process to give up their worldly things and become a Jain monk.
According to local media, her parents claimed that she had been keen to become a nun. Jain families are sometimes said to encourage their children to enter the monkhood to enhance their relatives’ social standing.
ICRA, an Indian credit rating agency, estimates the net worth of her family’s business, which was established in 1981, to be 5 billion rupees ($61 million).
Author-Roberta Appiah
