Jain Community Research Articles

The Lives of the Jain Elders. By Hemacandra; translated by R. C. C. Fynes. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. xli, 280 pp. $11.95 (paper).

The Lives of the Jain Elders is the standard synthesis of source material for the early history of Jainism by the great twelfth-century Jain scholar-monk, Hemacandra, also a key figure in the wider context of Sanskrit literature. An epic poem written in an allusive and ornamental style, it relates the pupillary succession of the early monastic Jain community, their teaching and the legendary spread of their influence, the ascetisicism of the Elders, and their eventual liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. Abounding in memorable characters, and providing a rich compendium of Indian folk-tale, The Lives of the Jain Elders offers fascinating insight into the social life of medieval India. This new translation makes the complete work available for the first time in a European language and is complemented by a full introduction illuminating Jain belief and history.

Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History

Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History

On Common Ground: World Religions in America

Combining text, video, graphics and music, this CD-ROM maps the diverse culture of faith in America. From a Hindu temple near Boston to the nation's oldest Islamic center in Iowa, it surveys Christian, Jewish, Jain, Sikh, Buddist, Islamic, Zoroastrian, African-American, and Pagan communities.

Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture.

What does it mean to worship beings that one believes are completely indifferent to, and entirely beyond the reach of, any form of worship whatsoever? How would such a relationship with sacred beings affect the religious life of a community? Using these questions as his point of departure, Lawrence A. Babb explores the ritual culture of image-worshipping Svetambar Jains of the western Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Jainism traces its lineages back to the ninth century B.C.E. and is, along with Buddhism, the only surviving example of India's ancient non-Vedic religious traditions. It is known and celebrated for its systematic practice of non-violence and for the intense rigor of the asceticism it promotes. A unique aspect of Babb's study is his linking of the Jain tradition to the social identity of existing Jain communities. Babb concludes by showing that Jain ritual culture can be seen as a variation on pan-Indian ritual patterns. In illuminating this little-known religious tradition, he demonstrates that divine absence can be as rich as divine presence in its possibilities for informing a religious response to the cosmos.

Riches and renunciation: religion, economy, and society among the Jains

How can one live by impossible ideals and values? The Jains of India are a flourishing and prosperous community, but their religion is focused on the teaching and example of ascetic renouncers, whose austere regime is actually dedicated to ending worldly life and often culminates in a fast to death. This book draws upon a detailed study of an urban Jain community in Jaipur, north-west India, to offer the fullest account yet given of Jain religious belief and practice. It shows how renunciation and asceticism play a central part in the life of a thriving business community, and how world-renunciation combines for Jain families with the pursuit of worldly happiness. The book is in five parts. Part I introduces the vivid mythology and doctrine of Jainism, and the traditions of Jain renouncers. Part II discusses the relations of Jains with other groups in Indian society, the politics of leadership on Jain communities, and the history, character, and composition of the Jain community in Jaipur. Part III contains detailed analyses of lay ascetic practices such as fasting and confession, traditions of imagery and iconography, and key religious ideas, such as the paradoxical doctrine of 'non-violence' (ahimsa). These are shown to turn on complex conceptions of the body and contrasting moral topographies of self. Part IV concerns relations between lay Jains and renouncers, and draws on recent writing on exchange and value to analyse the pivotal place of alms-giving in the Jain religion. Part V describes some of the closest connections between riches and renunciation, and shows how the pan-Indian festival of Diwali is adapted to distinctively Jain values and concerns.

Concretely Imagining the Southern Digambar Jain Community, 1899–1920

In the pilgrimage season of 1899 a ‘small but select’ group of Jains met before the temple of the deity Bharamappa near Kolhapur to found the Southern Maharashtra Jain Sabha, thedakṣiṣ mahāraṣṬrajain sabhā.The intended constituency of the Sabha was the Digambar Jain population of the Southern Maratha Country of the Bombay Presidency, the area including Kolhapur State, Belgaum, and Sangli, with their rural hinterlands. The Sabha prospers still, while so many of the other associations in that lush growth of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in India have disappeared. It has been instrumental in forging a Jain ethnicity, in creating a new sense of a specifically Jain past and present, and in fostering new habits of education and of social intercourse among Jains. A good proportion of what is today taken for granted by Jains about southern Digambar samskrti, ‘culture’ or ‘civilization’, was moulded by Jains acting in and through the Sabha.

Defining Division: An Historical Overview of Jain Social Organization

This paper briefly charts the progress and findings of European scholars approaching the issues of caste and sect in the Jain community over the last two centuries. Other authors have already discussed the European interest in Jain textual and philosophical issues, and while I touch on these briefly, my main concern is to outline Jain social organization, with particular reference to Swetambar communities in the north.

Including Jainism

Summary Jainism has received very little attention from teachers concerned with religious or multicultural education in Britain, despite the fact that for over a decade now there has been a significant Jain community in this country. This omission needs correcting by religious educators involved in developing new syllabuses, not simply as a measure of our awareness of a small minority in our multi‐faith society, but because Jain teachings can make a significant contribution in discussing ethical issues today and add helpful perspectives in developing inter‐faith dialogue. Approaches to including Jainism are suggested and a selective, annotated bibliography is attached.

Socio-biological parameters in relation to permanent sterilisation of parents.

A random sample of 400 families (200 urban and 200 rural) where either parent had undergone permanent sterilisation (vasectomy or tubectomy) were studied. Male sterilisations were higher than female sterilisations. Economic status of families studied did not show any significant relation to type of operation preferred. Maternal literacy was directly related to the preponderance of tubectomies in urban areas. The latter were also found to be significantly higher in the Jain community where joint families were the rule. Majority of the mothers got married and conceived before 20 years of age. Average duration of active reproductive life prior to sterilisation was 18·6 years (rural) and 11·5 years (urban). The average number of conceptions and living children produced during this period were 5·99±0.·51 (S.E.) and 4·75 ±0·72 (S.E.) (rural) and 4·35±0·19 (S.E.) and 3·80±0·11 (S.E.) respectively. Presence of at least one living male child was statistically significantly related to acceptance of permanent sterilisation. Most parents considered permanent sterilisation a right step and were satisfied after the operation.

Early Hindi and Urdu Poetry.No. IV.

Banārsī dās of Jaunpūr belonged to the Jain community and was born in 1586. The following charming extracts are taken from his most famous work, Arddh Kathānak, an autobiography completed in 1641.His wonderful power of word painting is exemplified in these passages. The first describes the commotion in Jaunpūr when the news of Akbar's death was received in 1605. We feel the spell of the description, and tremble with the frightened populace. This picture should be compared with Zaṭallī's account of the turmoil after the death of Aurangzeb. (See below.)The second tells of the Black Death, bubonic plague, in Agra during 1616, the first time the city was visited by that pestilence. Anyone who has been in India during a plague epidemic will realize the force of his words, the rats dying, the spread of the disease among the people, the glandular swellings, the sudden deaths, the mortality among the physicians, the despair and flight of the townsfolk afraid even to partake of food.