The city that goes dark before you do
You arrive in Palitana expecting a temple town. What you find is a place that has already decided what it will and will not permit. There is no meat sold here, not in any shop, not in any home. The Gujarat government made it official in 2014 after Jain monks undertook a fast demanding the ban, and the city agreed. This is not a wellness retreat's idea of clean eating. It is a civic position. The restaurants close early. After sunset, the Jain practice of ratri bhojan tyag, the renunciation of food eaten after dark, shapes the rhythm of the entire town. You will eat before the light goes. You will sit with that hunger, or with its absence, in a way that feels less like discipline and more like the town asking you to pay attention to what you actually need.
