Sallekhana Jain community. It has not been a "practical or general goal" among Svetambara Jains for many years. It was revived among Digambara monks. In 1955, Acharya Shantisagar, a Digambara monk took the vow because of his inability to walk without help and his weak eye-sight. In 1999, Acharya Vidyanand, another Digambara monk, took a twelve-year-long vow. Between 1800 and 1992, at least 37 instances of "Sallekhana" are recorded in Jain literature. There were 260 and 90 recorded Sallekhana deaths among Svetambara and Digambara Jains respectively between 1993 and 2003. According to Jitendra Shah, the Director of L D Institute of
Digambara Patra Digambara Patra Digambara Patra is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the American University of Beirut. Digambara earned a PhD degree in Chemistry working with Professor A. K. Mishra at Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Subsequently, he spent in University of Basel, Switzerland, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany and Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan for his postdoctoral studies before joining American University of Beirut. He is a recipient of Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship and JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship. With Professor A. K. Mishra at Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Digambara discovered that Synchronous Fluorescence Scan are the easy, fast and sensitive approach