JAINISM Early History

111111xxx00010.1177/1111111111111111 Copyright © 2012 SAGE Publications. Not for sale, reproduction, or distribution. J Early History JAINISM The origins of the doctrine of the Jinas are obscure. Jainism (Jinism), one of the oldest surviving reli- According to tradition, the religion has no founder. gious traditions of the world, with a focus on It is taught by 24 omniscient prophets, in every asceticism and salvation for the few, was confined half-cycle of the eternal wheel of time. Around the to the Indian subcontinent until the 19th century. fourth century BCE, according to modern research, It now projects itself globally as a solution to the last prophet of our epoch in world his- world problems for all. The main offering to mod- tory, Prince Vardhamāna—known by his epithets ern global society is a refashioned form of the Jain mahāvīra (“great hero”), tīrthaṅkāra (“builder of ethics of nonviolence (ahiṃsā) and nonpossession a ford” [across the ocean of suffering]), or jina (aparigraha) promoted by a philosophy of non- (spiritual “victor” [over attachment and karmic one-sidedness (anekāntavāda). bondage])—renounced the world, gained enlight- The recent transformation of Jainism from an enment (kevala-jñāna), and henceforth propagated ideology of world renunciation into an ideology a universal doctrine of individual salvation (mokṣa) for world transformation is not unprecedented. It of the soul (ātman or jīva) from the karmic cycles belongs to the global movement of religious mod- of rebirth and redeath (saṃsāra). In contrast ernism, a 19th-century theological response to the to the dominant sacrificial practices of Vedic ideas of the European Enlightenment, which West- Brahmanism, his method of salvation was based on ernized elites in South Asia embraced under the the practice of nonviolence (ahiṃsā) and asceticism influence of colonialism, global industrial capital- (tapas). After enlightenment, Mahāvīra formed ism, and modern science and technology. In the a mendicant order of monks and nuns, called early discourse of Jain modernism, Jainism was nirgranthas and nirgranthīs (“unattached ones”), framed not only as a religion, in the sense of the which became the heart of the caturvidha-saṅgha new Religionswissenschaft (Science of Religion), (“fourfold community”) of monks, nuns, male but also as a world religion, both by colonial laity, and female laity. The mendicant orders of the administrators and by Western-educated Jain com- nirgranthas were the first monastic organizations munity leaders, promoting the reformist agenda of the world. Access was not predicated on social that now dominates Jain culture, especially in the criteria and, in principle, was open to all. Already global Jain diaspora. during Mahāvīra’s lifetime, the mendicants began 975 Copyright © 2012 SAGE Publications. Not for sale, reproduction, or distribution. 976 Jainism to split into many independently organized groups Panjabi Śvetāmbaras from the Osvāl and Śrīmālī or orders (gaṇa, gaccha, etc.) which, together with castes, started to migrate beyond famine-stricken their respective lay following (often recruited from South Asia, first to East Africa, where the majority a particular local clan or caste), formed rival sects worked in their traditional professions as shop- under a variety of designations. From the begin- keepers and traders, and later to Britain, North ning of the Common Era, additionally, the two America, and other parts of the world. Wherever main denominations of the Digambara monks they settled, the migrants constructed community (“sky-clad”—that is, naked) and the Śvetāmbara centers and temples, which often transcended (“white-clad”) monks developed along geographic traditional boundaries of sect, caste, and region and doctrinal lines. The former are still predomi- because of the small number of local Jain families. nant in north, central, and southern India, and the Devoid of the support of Jain mendicants and latter prevail in western India. other religious experts, lay Jains also presented their religion in the public sphere and, in this way, contributed to the growing global recognition and Colonialism and Revivalism appeal of Jainism even beyond the confines of the The Sanskrit word jaina (colloquially: jain), or traditional Jain subsects and subcastes. The pat- jainī, came to be more commonly used as a self- tern of migrant trading communities contributing designation and in north India as a family name to the global spread of an internally highly diverse by the followers of the Jina under the influence of minority religion confirms sociological stereotypes. religious nationalism and communalism, in the 19th Yet, the values of orthodox Jainism, although century, while the English word Jainism replaced universal in outlook and appeal, work against ancient terms such as jina-dharma (“doctrine of globalization, if understood as a set of material the Jina”) or jina-mārga (“path of the victorious”). practices involving the unrestrained movement of At the same time, the preachings (pravacana) of people, goods, capital, information, and cultural Mahāvīra, which are said to inform the scriptural values throughout the world. They demand, on corpus (āgama or siddhānta) redacted in the fifth the contrary, restraint in all spheres of action, in century CE, were for the first time made acces- “mind, speech, and body,” and explicitly discour- sible to a wider public, both Jain and non-Jain, age long-distance travel and unlimited expansion through print editions and translations into Indic of the spheres of action. The ancient Śvetāmbara and European languages. Particularly influential scriptures stipulate the compulsory peregrinations were the text editions and translations of H. Jacobi of Jain mendicants, performed to ensure perpetual (1882, 1884, 1894), which furnished clear textual nonattachment, to be confined to a circumscribed proof for the historical independence of the Jaina region in northern India, between Aṅga-Magadha tradition from Brahmanism and Buddhism. They to the east, Kauśāmbī to the south, the Sthūṇā area still serve as reference points for the construction of to the west, and Takṣaśilā (Taxila) to the north communal Jain identity by means of modern char- (the fertile plains and heartland of Vedic culture ters such as Jaina law (Jain, 1926; Jaini, 1916), Jaina between modern Bihar and the Hindukush), and community (Sangave, 1959), Jain ecology (Singhvi, all other regions “where Jaina knowledge, belief 2002), or Jain economics (Mahāprajña, 2000), and and conduct is well established” (KS 1.51). The are cited in public forums, such as the first World daily begging round should also not exceed a Congress of Religions in Chicago 1893, where certain distance, and the exceptional crossing of Jainism was presented to a global public by the waterways by boat only was equally strictly regu- lawyer V. R. Gandhi (1893), acting on behalf of the lated. One of the 12 principal vows for Jain laity, Śvetāmbara monk Vijaya Ānanda Sūri (1836–1896) the diga-vrata (“restriction of distance”), demands who, in accordance with Jain monastic rules, could a formal commitment not to transgress the limits not use any means of transport and travel overseas. of a circumscribed area of movement in order to reduce the overall quantity of violence against all forms of life. In practice, this vow is rarely Migration and Worldwide Mission taken, except in the last stages of life. Yet, acts of For economic reasons, from the late 19th century deliberate self-limitation in all spheres of action, onward, Jain laity, the majority Gujarati and especially regarding contexts of exploitation (of Copyright © 2012 SAGE Publications. Not for sale, reproduction, or distribution. Jainism 977 animals and humans), (re)production, accumula- Jain modernism are the impact of modern science tion, consumption, and movement, are still highly on the interpretation and frequently reductionist praised and currently creatively reinterpreted in (re-)formulation of Jain doctrine (“essence of terms of the modern concerns of ecology, vegan- Jainism”) and the deliberate break with traditional ism, and world peace, unknown to traditional sectarian and caste identities. The increased role Jainism. For a variety of other, partly modern, rea- and recognition of lay intellectuals and of women sons, such as fear of pollution, until the mid-20th in religion are also notable, as is the use of English century, Jains and other high-caste Indians were as a new lingua franca for global Jainism, supple- generally not permitted by their caste councils to menting cosmopolitan Sanskrit and sanskritized travel overseas, on threat of excommunication. Prakrit in India, and of print and electronic media, Although standards of conduct are perceived to be which are all rejected by traditionalists. Central is dropping continuously even in the Jain communi- the nontraditional understanding and imaginative ties, in line with the doctrinally predicted overall rationalization and packaging, by modernizers and trend in our “times” (yuga), there is still some antimodernizers alike, of a great variety of received stigma attached to occupations engaged in acts of doctrines and practices from the point of view of violence, notably industrial production. Yet, an modern science (Jain biology, Jain physics, Jain increasing number of monastic and lay commu- mathematics, Jain meditation, etc.). Increasingly, nity leaders criticize orthodox “obstinacy” to the cosmology and mythology are not read literally “necessary

Load more