“I HAVE been fasting every Monday since I was a teenager,” says Mrudulaben, a prosperous 78-year-old Indian woman. This has been a part of her worship, a way to ensure that she had a good marriage and healthy children, as well as protection for her husband. Now a widow, she continues to fast on Mondays for good health and for the prosperity of her children. Like her, the majority of Hindu women make regular fasts part of their life.

Prakash, a middle-aged businessman living in a suburb of Mumbai (Bombay), India, says that he fasts every year on the Mondays of Sawan (Shravan). This is a month of special religious significance on the Hindu calendar. Prakash explains: “I started out for religious reasons, but now I find an added incentive to continue for health purposes. Since Sawan comes toward the end of the monsoon, it gives my system a chance to cleanse itself of illnesses peculiar to the rainy season.”

Fasting is a prominent ritual in Hinduism. On certain days, states the book Fast and Festivals of India, “complete fast is observed . . . even water is not taken at all. Both men and women observe strict fast . . . to ensure happiness, prosperity and forgiveness of transgressions and sins.”