Jainism 9781441151162, 9781441165947, 9781472594549, 9781474227568

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Jainism

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BLOOMSBURY GUIDES FOR THE PERPLEXED Bloomsbury’s Guides for the Perplexed are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging – or indeed downright bewildering. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material.

Guides for the Perplexed available from Bloomsbury: Spirituality: A Guide for the Perplexed, Philip Sheldrake Daoism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Louis Komjathy Sikhism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Wouter J. Hanegraaff Confucius: A Guide for the Perplexed, Yong Huang The Baha’i Faith: A Guide for the Perplexed, Robert H. Stockman Kabbalah: A Guide for the Perplexed, Pinchas Giller New Religious Movements: A Guide for the Perplexed, Paul Oliver Zoroastrianism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Jenny Rose

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A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED

Jainism SHERRY FOHR

Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP UK

1385 Broadway New York NY 10018 USA

www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2015 © Sherry Fohr, 2015 Sherry Fohr has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-5116-2 PB: 978-1-4411-6594-7 ePDF: 978-1-4742-2756-8 ePub: 978-1-4742-2755-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Series: Bloomsbury’s Guides for the Perplexed Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk, UK

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For Brad, my wise and loving brother

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CONTENTS

Preface viii Acknowledgments ix Permissions xi

1 The religious, historical, and cultural contexts of Jain narratives 1 2 Why Jainism survives: Jain sects and sub-sects

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3 Jain ethics and exemplars for renouncers: The twenty-four re-founders (Jinas) of Jainism 35 4 Exemplars for nuns and laywomen: Virtuous women 55 5 Exemplars for laymen: Kings and gods

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6 Conclusion: Festivals, prayer, and worship

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Glossary 111 Notes 113 References 139 Index 155

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PREFACE

Although Jainism has a significant following in India as well as an extremely influential and diverse tradition of religious narratives, relatively little has been published about Jain sacred stories. These narratives are the primary means through which Jains learn about their own religion and how to practice it, and so they are extremely influential concerning how Jains understand, practice, and live their religion today. Narratives are so fundamental to the Jain tradition in this way that it is often very difficult for the non-Jain to understand this religious tradition without them. Therefore, this book explains some basic Jain values, beliefs, and practices in the same way they are taught to Jains themselves, through the medium of sacred narratives. Jainism developed alongside Hinduism and Buddhism, and the various genres of Jain narratives reflect the Jain worldview that has both similarities and differences with these two religions. One genre of narratives illustrates the longstanding historical imperative to reform laxity within Jain orders of renouncers, an imperative that both led to the formation of different sects and sub-sects and also allowed Jainism to survive in India while Buddhism declined. Narratives about the founders (Jinas) of Jainism provide exemplars for monks and nuns to follow today. They also provide descriptions of exemplary ethical conduct that is further encouraged by other narratives that describe the karmic punishments for violating ethical principles. Narratives about heroic “virtuous women” provide exemplars for both nuns and laywomen to follow, while narratives about kings and gods provide exemplars for laymen. Finally, there are narratives concerning prayers, festivals, and worship that are relevant to all Jains regardless of whether they are monks, nuns, laymen, or laywomen. Sherry Fohr Converse College Spartanburg, SC (USA) 12 February 2014

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is the result of several years of work and research, starting with my graduate research over a decade ago, and I have benefited from the help and feedback of many people and organizations during this time. First and foremost my gratitude goes to John E. Cort at Denison University for the many times he has read and critiqued my work as it has progressed over the years, and for doing the same for this book. John Cort has benevolently guided the growth in Jain Studies in recent years, and his efforts are appreciated by many. Other colleagues who have helped me with their critiques and guidance over the years include Paul Dundas, Peter Flügel, Whitney Kelting, Karen Lang, Anne Monius, Cindy Hoehler-Fatton, Susan McKinnon, and Tessa Bartholomeusz. The innovative approach of this book (introducing Jainism through its narratives) is the most recent result of the support of my graduate school advisor, Karen Lang at the University of Virginia. Her guidance helped me to develop academic rigor while also allowing me the freedom to explore traditional subjects in innovative and interdisciplinary ways. This book is also the result of Dean Jeffrey Barker’s support for my continued research and work over the years while teaching at Converse College. My gratitude also goes to my father, Samuel D. Fohr, who always encouraged me in my studies and work, and who graciously agreed to critique and proofread the manuscript of this book. JulieMaria Kachadoorian kindly helped me with ninth-hour proofreading of the emergency revisions to one of these chapters (due to denial of a permission) before the start of production the very next day. Her help with proofreading and indexing the entire manuscript was invaluable. I am grateful to my late grandmother, Jennie Fohr, for her support over the years. The work of my research assistants over the years has been invaluable, including Bailey Szustak, Elizabeth Anthony, and Maddy Morris. Finally, for Lalle Pursglove’s (at Bloomsbury Publishing) feedback and seemingly infinite patience, thank you!

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My gratitude goes to the many Jains I worked with in India and the United States. The many nuns, with whom I had the pleasure to study, not only gave me valuable insights into the Jain tradition, but also into life. I remember them often. My appreciation goes to all the nuns, nuns-in-training, and mumuksu¯ sisters whom I ˙ met and studied with under the care of Stha¯nakav a¯s¯ı Sa¯dhv¯ı S´r¯ı ´ Pr¯ıtisudha¯ J¯ı, Mu¯rtipu¯jak Sa¯dhv¯ı Kusum Prabha¯ Sr¯ı J¯ı, Digambara Ganin¯ı Jña¯namat¯ı Ma¯ta¯ J¯ı, Mu¯rtipu¯jak Pravartin¯ı La¯vanya S´r¯ı, ˙ Mu¯˙rtipu¯jak Sa¯dhv¯ı Manohar S´r¯ı J¯ı, Tera¯panth¯ı Sa¯dhv¯ı Pramukh a¯ Kanak Prabha¯ J¯ı, Digambar Ksullika¯ Ka¯nchan Ma¯ta¯ J¯ı, and Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı Sa¯dhv¯ı Arunprabha¯ S´˙r¯ı J¯ı, Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı (independent) A¯ca¯rya Sa¯dhv¯ı Candana¯. I also need to thank Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı Sa¯dhv¯ı Nidh¯ı S´r¯ı J¯ı as well. I also want to thank the monks and a¯ca¯ryas with whom I was able to talk briefly and who supported my research including Tera¯panth¯ı A¯ca¯ryas Tuls¯ı J¯ı and Maha¯pragya J¯ı, Digambara A¯ca¯rya Vidya¯nanda Ji, Mu¯rtipu¯jak A¯ca¯rya Padma¯sa¯gar Su¯ri S´r¯ı J¯ı, Digambara Muni Kamkumara¯nanda J¯ı, and Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı (independent) A¯ca¯rya Sa¯dhv¯ı Candana¯. There are also many Jain lay-people without whom I could not have conducted my research. I want to thank Rita, Satish, and Punita Oswal (and family) of Delhi for their hospitality, friendship, and advice. I want to thank Vandana Vora, my invaluable research assistant in India, Mr. and Mrs. Praveen of Meerut, Mr. Ramesh Darda of Nagpur, and the inspirationally fearless Sushila Didi. My appreciation goes to the resourceful and helpful people of the L.D. Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad, the B.L. Institute of Indology in Delhi (especially Professor P.V. Jain), Jain Vishva Bharti, Vimal Vidya Vihar (for having me to their school), the Adhyatma Sadhana Kendra (especially Dharma¯nanda J¯ı), Jambudvip, Motilal Barnasidass in Delhi, the Mahavir Jain Aradhan Kendra outside of Ahmedabad, and Kund Kund Bharti in Delhi.

PERMISSIONS

The following extracts were reproduced with kind permission. The author has made every effort to trace copyright holders and to obtain permission to reproduce extracts. This has not been possible in every case, however, any omissions brought to our attention will be remedied in future editions. “Kuma¯rapa¯lapratibodha” translated by Phyllis Granoff, from The Forest of Thieves and the Magic Garden (Penguin, 1998). Reprinted by permission of author. Yogas´a¯stra translated by O. Qvarnström (Harvard Oriental Series, Harvard University Press, 2002). “The Jain Ramayana” from Jain Spirit 24: 76–78, De Clercq, Eva. 2005a. A¯ca¯ra¯n˙ga Su¯tra. Translated by Hermann Jacobi (1964) in Jaina Su¯tras, pt. 1: 1–211 (vol. 22 in the Sacred Books of the East, edited by Max Muller). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Jain, Prem Suman. 1990. “The Tale of the Faithful Wife Rohin¯ı.” In ˙ The Clever Adulteress and Other Stories, edited by Phyllis Granoff, 75–83 © 2014, Mosaic Press, 1252 Speers Rd., Units 1 & 2, Oakville, ON L6L 5N9, http://www.mosaic-press.com Das´avaika¯lika Su¯tra. Edited and translated by S´r¯ı Amar Muni (1997). Delhi: Padma Prakashan. Padmapura¯na by Ravesena¯ca¯rya, from Jain Ra¯ma Katha¯ or Padma ˙ ˙ Pura¯na (Padmacarita) ,˙ edited and translated by Shantilal Nagar ˙ (Delhi, 2008) © Eastern Book Linkers.

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PERMISSIONS

C¯ıvakacinta¯mani by Tiruttakkatêvar. Translated by James D. Ryan ˙ CA: Jain Publishing Company. (2005). Fremont, Katha¯kos´a. Translated by C.H. Tawney (1895). London: Royal Asiatic Society.

CHAPTER ONE

The religious, historical, and cultural contexts of Jain narratives Jainism is arguably the most non-violent and austere religion in the world. While lay Jains attempt never to harm humans or animals, the strict non-violence followed by the highly revered monks and nuns also proscribes harm to any living being, even a microscopic organism. And while laywomen (and a few laymen) undergo long and difficult fasts, the longest being for one month, renouncers’ austerities also include pulling their hair out by the roots two to five times a year, walking bare foot throughout India most of the year, and, in the case of some monks, not wearing any clothing at all. However, only the very small percentage of Jains who become monks and nuns actually endeavor to embody the full measure of non-violence, austerity, and poverty prescribed by the scriptures. The vast majority of Jains are laypeople who opt to postpone this difficult renunciation to a future lifetime. They are therefore free to enjoy worldly wellbeing, happiness, and wealth now while they also practice Jain ethics and traditions suitable to laypeople, including religious festivals and celebrations. Although Jainism has a significant following in India of around four million adherents, there has been relatively little published in English about Jains, and even less published about the sacred stories of Jainism, the subject of this book.1

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Understanding Jainism through narratives This book is not a complete survey of Jainism that extensively details the varieties of beliefs and practices in each sect and sub-sect in highly specialized or technical language. This book also does not extensively detail historical developments, regional variations, sectarian differences, and visual culture or art history. Instead, this book is designed to complement the books that already do all this, to be useful in undergraduate survey courses that introduce students to Jainism, and to explain Jainism to anyone curious about this tradition. It does all this by explicating some basic Jain values, beliefs, and practices through its narrative tradition. These narratives, many of which are ancient or medieval, are mainly examined through the lens of contemporary ethnography to help the reader understand Jainism as it is today. There are several reasons why narratives are important for understanding Jainism. First, narratives are important in general for understanding individual religions and cultures because they communicate (a) beliefs about the nature of the world, its structure, and how it functions, (b) beliefs about the nature(s) of people in general as well as categories of people in various grouping (such as gender), and (c) beliefs about what one should do (or not do) and about what one should value, considering (a) and (b). Narratives about those who are considered heroic and/or spiritually accomplished often provide models for culturally and religiously successful action in the world. Second, religious narratives are the primary means through which Jains learn about Jainism. In order to explain Jainism (including values, beliefs, and practices), renouncers tell narratives to laypeople, and mothers and grandmothers tell them to children. Narratives are so central to the Jain tradition in this way that it could be argued that Jainism would not exist, and that one cannot understand Jainism, without them. This book explains Jainism to readers in the same way it is taught to Jains themselves, through the medium of sacred narratives. Third, Jain narratives offer a more complete picture of this religion because they include mytho-historical exemplars of the entire fourfold community (of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen), whereas non-narrative texts concern mostly monks and laymen. In the latter case this produces an important discrepancy for understanding

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Jainism as a living tradition because there are currently four to five times more nuns than monks, and laywomen tend to be in charge of the religiosity in their homes. A focus on non-narrative texts also emphasizes some complex subject matter that, although important for understanding Jainism, is less influential than narrative exemplars on how Jains practice their tradition in everyday life. Fourth, John Cort (2001a, 12, 200) has demonstrated that the goal of enlightenment (moksa) beyond this world is not always central in “the lived experience of˙ Jains.” While non-narrative Jain texts tend to emphasize the path to moksa, narratives include this as the ultimate ˙ but also include Jainism as a path to soteriological goal of Jainism, 2 “wellbeing” in the world as well. Thus, Jain stories advocate the practice of Jainism to achieve moksa, but they also explicate how Jain practices result in worldly benefi˙ts. For example, there are many narratives in which practicing Jainism results in such worldly benefits as wealth, power, good fortune, rebirth as a god, virtuous sons and daughters, and even sometimes the enjoyment of sensual pleasures.3 Worldly results are acknowledged as acceptable reasons to practice Jainism in these narratives, even while emphasizing that there will always be suffering in the world of rebirth (samsa¯ra) and that achieving moksa is the best reason to practice Jainism. ˙However, Jain narratives ˙ describe a conflict between these worldly and other-worldly do not goals, but rather often describe how mytho-historical exemplars eventually shift their focus from worldly benefits to moksa later in their lifetimes or in one of their next lifetimes, and this is the˙ way that many Jain laypeople currently approach their religion.4 Fifth, narrative texts are also important in understanding Jain ethics, and the consequences of violating ethical principles, because they describe and evaluate specific ethical (or unethical) actions in the context of narrative characters’ lives and circumstances. The more abstract exposition of Jain ethics in non-narrative texts sometimes overemphasizes the differences between Jains and nonJains, whereas narrative texts help us understand the similarities as well. For example, there are narratives about lying, verbal and emotional abuse, slander, sex scandals, hypocrisy, and murder. The unethical nature of all of these is arguably easily understandable to non-Jains (such as myself), and narratives concerning them help the non-Jain student of this tradition understand Jain approaches to ethical problems commonly experienced by people in many religions and cultures.

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Religious, historical, and cultural contexts In order to understand Jainism and its narratives, it is necessary to understand the religious, historical, and cultural contexts in India where Jainism was founded and continued to develop. Jains assert that their religion has been re-founded repeatedly, and that there have been twenty-four different re-founders in the current age who are the Jinas “Victors” (also called T¯ırthan˙karas “Ford-makers”), the last of which was Maha¯v¯ıra. Jainism, as it is practiced today in India, is traced back to Jina Maha¯v¯ıra, who lived from 599 BCE to either 527 BCE (according to the S´veta¯mbara Jains) or 510 BCE (according to the Digambara Jains). However, there is debate among scholars about the dates of Maha¯v¯ıra’s birth and death, with some putting his death as late as 425 BCE.5 As Jainism developed, it interacted with other religious communities in India and eventually divided into two main sects (S´veta¯mbara and Digambara), which further divided into smaller sub-sects and communities.6 The majority of Indians today are Hindu, although there are also Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains, as well as members of other minority religions. However, at the time Jainism developed there was mainly a diverse, and sometimes contradictory, body of beliefs and practices that would later develop into what is known today as Hinduism. Hinduism developed gradually over time in several historical stages during which new practices and beliefs emerged while older ones were preserved or modified. Arguably the three most important historical developments of Hinduism – and the reason for this tradition’s internal, and sometimes contradictory, diversity in practice – were later categorized into “three paths” or trima¯rga: the karmama¯rga (“the path of works”), the jña¯nama¯rga (“the path of knowledge”), and the bhaktima¯rga (“the path of devotion”).7 There also was a fourth influential pan-Indian religious development in India’s history not included in this trima¯rga: tantrism. Jainism and Buddhism have been influenced by, and also influenced, these four religio-historical developments, as can be seen in Jain narratives. Both Jainism and Buddhism were founded after “the path of works” was already well established (but still changing), and while “the path of knowledge” was developing. While “the path

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of works” was life- and world-affirming, “the path of knowledge” rejected life in the world as the cause of inevitable suffering and as something to be renounced. However, Hindu renouncers of “the path of knowledge” did not reject as many beliefs and practices of “the path of works” as Jain and Buddhist renouncers did, and so only Jainism and Buddhism developed as separate religions during this time period. These two separate religions then had different responses to the later devotional and tantric developments. With the emergence of “the path of devotion” in Hinduism, so too emerged a new and more devotional form of Buddhism, Maha¯ya¯na Buddhism, which diverged significantly from previous forms of Buddhism and which eventually spread to East Asia. Also, with the emergence of Hindu tantra, so too developed a form of tantric Buddhism, Vajraya¯na Buddhism, which also had significant differences from the other previous forms of Buddhism and which eventually spread to central Asia as well as Himalayan countries and regions. Jainism, on the other hand, remained in India. It also remained more unified in its beliefs and practices, despite the development of different Jain sub-sects and the composition of copious amounts of narrative literature, during this later period.

The context of Jain narratives: “the path of works” The Vedic and Bra¯hmanic texts, associated with karmama¯rga (“the ˙ path of works”), developed from c. 1600 to 1000 BCE and from c. 900 to 800 BCE respectively.8 The worldview and values of the Vedic ritual tradition of “the path of works” concerned the creation and maintenance of the universe, as well as attaining and enjoying family and children (especially sons), sensual pleasures, prosperity, success, power, and the other good things life can bring. The Rgveda, ˙ the oldest and most important text in Vedic ritual, consists of various hymns recited in sacrificial rituals to different Vedic gods such as Indra, Varuna, Agni, Soma, Rudra, and Visnu.9 Indra, the ˙ king of Vedic gods, ˙is a frequent character in Jain˙ narratives as a devotee of the Jinas. Also, according to the Rgveda (10.90) the ˙ ce of the cosmic universe was created by the primordial sacrifi being called Purusa (“Man”) or Praja¯pati (“Lord of Creatures”). ˙

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Therefore, married brahmin priests needed to maintain the existence of the world by continuing to perform sacrificial rituals.10 For this service they received a daksina¯ (“priestly gift”) from the yajama¯na ˙ ˙ paid for the sacrifice and reaped the (sponsor or “sacrificer”), who ritual’s benefits if it was correctly performed, or reaped the harm if it was incorrectly performed.11 Brahmin priests not only perpetuated the world through continued sacrificial performances according to this Vedic worldview,12 but also the yajama¯na sponsored brahmin priests to perform sacrifices to obtain good standing with the gods, good fortune (such as sons), temporal power (if the sponsor was king), and a place in Vedic heaven after death.13 The primordial sacrifice of Purusa prescribed continued sacrifices ˙ explained the hereditary and to preserve the world, but it also occupational caste system that was already in place when Jainism developed, and that continues to be a strong part of Hindu culture to this day, with the following main castes (and their many subcastes that are too numerous to list). According to the Rgveda ˙ born (10.90), the four main varnas (castes or “colors”), which were ˙ from this primordial sacrifice and which correspond to Purusa’s body parts were: the brahmin priests (who were identified with ˙the head and mouth), the ksatriya rulers/warriors (who were identified with Purusa’s middle ˙and arms), the vais´ya producers/business ˙ were identified with Purusa’s legs), and the s´u¯dra people (who ˙ feet).14 Those who did servants (who were identified with Purusa’s ˙ not fall within one of these categories were labeled canda¯la ˙ ˙ the (“outcasts”) or untouchables.15 Not only did sacrifices maintain cosmic order, but performing the occupational duties of the caste one was born into did so as well. The correct social order, and its inherent duties, was traditionally considered objective reality instead of a social construct, and was thereby equated with cosmic wellbeing and universal harmony. Adherence to one’s own duties or dharma (according to one’s caste, age, and gender) precluded the suffering of social chaos, and ensured that life may be enjoyed. Characters in Jain narratives are often Jains of the ruling caste (kings, queens, etc.) or the producer caste; however most Jains today are business people belonging to one of the producer sub-castes.16 Although brahmin priests maintained their status at the top of the Hindu hierarchy throughout Hinduism’s historical developments, there are many Jain narratives in which Jains come in conflict with haughty Hindu brahmin priests and reject their authority.

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The context of Jain narratives: “the path of knowledge” and Buddhism Between 900 and 500 bce a new genre of Hindu literature was composed: the Upanisads of the jña¯nama¯rga (“the path of knowledge”).17 The Upani˙ sads advocated beliefs, values, and ˙ practices that were very different from those of “the path of works” even though the Upanisads were also considered Vedic literature.18 ˙ First, “the path of knowledge” helped to solidify the idea of reincarnation in the world of rebirth and re-death (samsa¯ra) in ˙ beings, which souls are reborn as humans, animals, demons, helland heavenly-beings. Second, the concept of karma shifted from meaning only the efficacious ritual action of priests during the sacrificial rites of “the path of works,” to meaning all actions (and their like-results) over many lifetimes. With the development of “the path of knowledge,” all “actions” (karma) were believed to determine where, and in what form, one is reborn and to determine the happiness or suffering one experiences in each rebirth. It came to mean justice worked into the fabric of the universe like a law of nature, without any God administering punishments or rewards. Third, instead of the goals of religion being the maintenance and enjoyment of life as well as the enjoyment of heaven after death, “the path of knowledge” emphasized that the world is full of inevitable suffering and that the only true and permanent happiness is beyond this world or heaven in an enlightened state called moksa ˙ (“liberation”) or mukti (“release”) in which one is no longer reborn in samsa¯ra (“the world” of reincarnation) again. Fourth, instead of Vedic˙ polytheism, “the path of knowledge” advocated monotheism with the one God or Ultimate Reality called Brahman.19 Fifth, the new belief that all living beings have a “soul” or “Self” (a¯tman) that is one with Brahman, although this oneness is normally not experienced, was perhaps one of the most significant developments during this period of Indian history. Sixth, instead of prioritizing the knowledge of Vedic rites and hymns, “the path of knowledge” emphasized working toward the experiential knowledge of the soul’s (a¯tman) identification with God (Brahman), knowledge that results in moksa and therefore freedom from being reborn in the ˙ world of inevitable suffering (samsa¯ra). Seventh, renunciation of householder and family life was ˙considered necessary to achieve moksa because the components of householder life (marriage, sex, ˙

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home, family, work, and money) distracted one from this goal. Therefore diverse orders of celibate renouncers emerged in India, with brahmin priests eventually including the renunciation of “the path of knowledge” within their re-organization of “the path of works” so that later orthodox Hindu orders of renouncers eventually limited initiation to twice-born men (men of the three upper castes). Both Jainism and Buddhism arose around 500 to 400 BCE, after “the path of knowledge” started to develop in Hinduism, and so share many similarities with it. For example, Jains and Buddhists also claimed all living beings’ karma determined both where, and in what forms, they were repeatedly reborn. The world of reincarnation (samsa¯ra) in which Jain narratives take place therefore includes ˙ multiple heavens, multiple hells, and earth; and characters in Jain narratives include humans, animals, demons (ra¯ksasa), and types of semi-divine beings and minor gods (devas and yaks˙as).20 Furthermore, Jains and Buddhists asserted that samsa¯ra is˙ characterized by ˙ in one of the heavens is inevitable suffering, because even rebirth temporary, but also asserted that true happiness may be achieved by escaping this cycle (to achieve moksa or nirva¯na) by becoming a monk or a nun who renounces sex,˙ marriage, ˙family, and wealth. Therefore, both Jains and Buddhists constituted their own four-fold communities of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. Although most human characters in Jain narratives are members of the Jain four-fold community, Hindu and Buddhist laypeople and renouncers are also in some of these narratives. Although Jainism and Buddhism were similar to “the path of knowledge” of Hinduism in the above ways, they also differed from it enough to develop into separate religions. Unlike “the path of knowledge,” both Jainism and Buddhism rejected the early Vedic texts; rejected the authority of brahmin priests; rejected the idea that caste indicates inherent or hereditary virtue, purity, or religious ability; and rejected the concept of the Ultimate Reality as Brahman. Although Hindu renunciation of “the path of knowledge” is very different from what came before in “the path of works,” Jainism and Buddhism are even more divergent for the above reasons. Jainism’s doctrine of the seven (or nine) tattvas “realities” also differs from Buddhism in a variety of ways. According to Jains the universe is characterized by the tattvas, which include souls (j¯ıva), matter (aj¯ıva), matter coming in contact with the souls (a¯srava), binding of karma and the soul (bandha), inhibiting the influx of

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karma (samvara), purifying the soul of karma (nirjara¯), and liberation (˙moksa or nirva¯na).21 Some lists also add two more ˙ karma (pu ˙ nya) and harmful karma (pa¯pa).22 tattvas: beneficial ˙ of ana¯tman (no-Self) meant that While the early Buddhist doctrine no living being has an unchanging and independent Self or soul (a¯tman) that is one with God (Brahman), according to Jainism all living beings have innately perfect souls (j¯ıvas, a¯tmans) endowed with the divine qualities of infinite bliss, infinite knowledge, infinite perception, and infinite energy or power. While awakening to the true nature of reality became the key to extinguishing the suffering of rebirth, and therefore also to achieving nirva¯na in Buddhism, ˙ and therefore Jains asserted that purifying the soul of all karma, finally experiencing the four infinite qualities of the soul, was the key to achieving freedom from rebirth (moksa or nirva¯na). Also unlike Hindus and Buddhists, Jains ˙conceived ˙of karma as microscopic particles or matter (aj¯ıva) that float around the universe. Whenever a living being performs a good or bad action, these particles stick to the soul to produce a similar result later on in this life or the next, and then fall away from the soul again.23 The passions (kasa¯ya) – including hatred, greed, deception, anger, etc. – ˙ binding (bandha) these karmic particles to the soul, act as the glue and determining both the longevity and potency of the karmic result.24 Jain soteriology developed around this conception of karma, and is designed both to stop the influx of new harmful karma (samvara) and also to eliminate karmic particles already ˙ collected (nirjar a¯). So while Buddhism was called “the middle way” because the Buddha rejected the “extremes” of luxury and austerity, Jainism advocated difficult austerities (tapas) in order to purify the soul of karma. While both Jainism and Buddhism advocated nonviolence toward all living beings, and so both Buddhists and Jains criticized brahmin priests for sacrificing animals in Vedic rituals (a subject of some Jain narratives),25 Jains were even more strict about non-violence (ahimsa¯) in order to avoid acquiring more karma that ˙ stops one from experiencing the soul. Finally, both Buddhists and Jains developed different ideas of what they both called The Three Jewels: their respective tripartite organizations of religious fundamentals. In Buddhism The Three Jewels came to include (1) the Buddha, (2) the dharma or the Buddha’s teachings, and (3) the samgha or the Buddhist community ˙ of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. In Jainism, however, The

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Three Jewels came to consist of (1) right faith, (2) right knowledge, and (3) right conduct.26 Right faith involves faith in the truth of the Jain teachings, such as tattvas, listed above.27 Jain narratives often involve characters experiencing right faith by hearing someone preach about Jainism or by remembering their own past lives, after which they are destined to master right conduct and to attain right knowledge (and therefore moksa) later in their current lives or in a ˙ later rebirth. While in Buddhism and Hinduism enlightenment (moksa or ˙ the nirva¯na) is not characterized by going to a particular place in ˙ universe, Jains also included a realm of enlightened souls at the top of the universe above the heavenly realms. Jain cosmology divided the world into five parts: the middle world (of humans and animals), several heavenly realms, several hellish realms, the realm of beings with only one sense, and the realm of enlightened souls.28 Jain narratives frequently follow characters through their various travails and reincarnations in this five-part world, during which they continue to experience the karmic consequences of their own actions until they succeed in halting the inflow of karmic particles (samvara) through non-violence and the elimination of the passions, and˙ in annihilating all accumulated karmic particles (nirjara¯) through austerities and meditation. Once they have done this, they attain omniscience (kevala) while still alive, and after death float to the top of the universe to join all other enlightened souls in freedom from further rebirth (moksa or nirva¯na). ˙ ˙

The context of Jain narratives: “the path of devotion” and tantra The Epics and Pura¯nas, associated with the Hindu bhaktima¯rga ˙ (“the path of devotion”) developed from c. 400 BCE to 400 CE and from c. 200 CE to 1600 CE respectively.29 “The path of devotion” started to emerge soon after “the path of knowledge,” Jainism, and Buddhism were established. It then developed over the centuries into arguably the most popular and influential of the three paths of Hinduism. Although there is some evidence of devotion to the Vedic gods and goddesses in “the path of works,”30 devotion was more emphasized as soteriology in “the path of devotion.” The Epics and Pura¯nas are largely narrative texts about the many bhaktima¯rga ˙

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gods and goddesses, and their incarnations in human form. These divinities were much more powerful than the older Vedic deities, and were later often considered the manifestations of the one God (Brahman), the supreme Ultimate Reality of “the path of knowledge.” The goals of “the path of devotion” were both to acquire and enjoy the good things in life (like “the path of works”) and also to achieve moksa (like “the path of knowledge”), both of which were to be ˙ achieved through the grace of gods and goddesses in response to the devotee’s love and worship. While collective or individual human effort was more emphasized in “the path of works” and “the path of knowledge,” reliance on the gods and goddesses was more emphasized in “the path of devotion.” Both Jains and Buddhists dealt similarly with the Vedic, Epic, and Pura¯nic gods and goddesses in that they were deemed inferior to Maha¯v˙ ¯ıra and the Buddha because they had not achieved enlightenment and were therefore still trapped in samsa¯ra. According ˙ good acts done to Jainism, anyone with enough merit (punya) from ˙ in this life (by following the Jain religion) could be reborn as a god or goddess in one of the heavens in their next life, and this is what happens in many Jain narratives. However, a more devotional form of Buddhism developed during this period (100 BCE to 200 CE) called Maha¯ya¯na Buddhism. The compassionate and supernaturally powerful Celestial Bodhisattvas of Maha¯ya¯na Buddhism not only helped their devotees achieve nirva¯na, but also helped them with more worldly needs and concerns. ˙Although prayer and worship were also present in Jainism, those most worthy of worship and devotion were, and continue to be, the Jinas and the religious men and women who followed in their footsteps by becoming monks and nuns in order to achieve moksa. Although Jainism continued to ˙ soteriology, devotionalism was emphasize individual effort in its nonetheless also present. Indeed, Jain narratives describe how both individual effort and devotion may lead to prosperity and happiness in samsa¯ra as well as to achieving moksa. ˙ Jain concept of God is very unique, ˙ 31 which also makes Jain The worship and devotion distinct. Buddhists largely rejected ideas about a creator God or Brahman, and the Celestial Bodhisattvas (of Maha¯ya¯na Buddhism) came to function like Gods in responding to human concerns and prayers. However, God is more complicated in Jainism. All the enlightened souls (including the Jinas) separated from the world of reincarnation at the top of the universe are

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worshipped both collectively and individually as God by Jains. However, this God did not create the universe because the universe has always existed and will always exist. In theory, this God also does not act, and therefore does not respond to prayers, because enlightened souls are beyond all desires that produced any actions. Nonetheless, Jains still testify to the efficacy of worshipping this God, and also claim to experience God’s grace in their lives. There is also another way Jainism came to differ from Buddhism during this period. Not only did Jains compose many narratives unique to Jainism,32 but unlike Buddhists they also composed their own versions of the Hindu Epics, the Ra¯ma¯yana and the Maha¯bha¯rata. The Hindu Ra¯ma¯yana is the story of Ra¯ma˙ (an incarnation of the Hindu God Visnu) ˙ who must rescue his wife S¯ıta¯ (the human ˙ ˙ goddess Laksm¯ı) after she is kidnapped, and kill incarnation of the ˙ the demon Ra¯vana (who kidnapped her) in order to preserve the ˙ world. The Hindu Maha¯bha¯rata relates Krsna’s (another incarnation ˙˙˙ of Visnu) assistance of the five Pa¯ndava brothers in their conflict with ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ their cousins (the hundred Kauravas) over the central kingdom.33 The various Jain versions of the Ra¯ma¯yana and the Maha¯bha¯rata ˙ of ways. For example, differ from the Hindu versions in a variety Ra¯ma and Krsna are not incarnations of Hindu Gods, and the Jinas ˙ ˙ ˙ are the objects of veneration by humans, animals, of those times gods, and goddesses. Furthermore, these Jain stories also often narrate events through many lifetimes, demonstrating the effects of karma in determining future rebirths. Also, the royal heroes and heroines of these narratives often renounce after their adventures or travails to become Jain monks and nuns. Then they either achieve moksa or are reborn as gods and goddesses in their next life, destined ˙ future to achieve moksa when they are again reborn as human. in the ˙ On the other hand, other heroes and villains in these Jain narratives are reborn in one of the hells because of the violence they committed, but are also destined to achieve moksa in a future lifetime. ˙ to develop (and while it was After “the path of devotion” started still developing) a fourth genre of Hindu texts was composed from c. 500 CE to 1800 CE called the tantras.34 Diverse tantric sects and developments (starting from the fifth or sixth centuries CE)35 emerged in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism; many of which included the goals of enlightenment (moksa or nirva¯na) and the acquisition of ˙ tantra ˙proved to be much more supernatural powers. However, influential in Buddhism than in Jainism. An entire third branch of

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13

Buddhism developed at this time called Vajraya¯na, or Tantric Buddhism, which still exists today, mostly in Tibetan and Himalayan regions. Although Jainism developed its own form of tantrism (mantrava¯da), tantra eventually became largely unacceptable among the majority of Jains and is therefore not a focus of this book. However, tantric influence can still be seen in the acquisition and use of supernatural powers in some Jain narrative literature, and in narrative characters who have these powers called vidya¯dharas.

Chapter outlines Chapter Two outlines the development of different Jain sects and sub-sects in connection with this religion’s endurance in India as a minority tradition. Jainism’s survival in India was secured by the persistence of this tradition’s orders of renouncers. The survival of Jain monks and nuns (and therefore also Jainism) in India is puzzling when contrasted with the history of the disappearance of Buddhist monks and nuns (and therefore also Buddhism) in most of India. Whereas Buddhist monks eventually relaxed (or completely changed) previously strict practices and rules, Jains instead formed different sects and sub-sects based on disagreements about strict adherence to the rules of renunciation, or in order to reform types of “laxity” that eventually became acceptable in Buddhism. Maintaining the strictness of Jain renouncers’ practices is so central to this tradition that there is an entire genre of narratives about this topic. Many of these narratives pertain to the formation of the S´veta¯mbara and the Digambara sects, of the Mu¯rtipu¯jak, Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı, and Tera¯panth sub-sects of the S´veta¯mbara sect, and of the Mu¯rtipu¯jak Gacchs. Chapter Three includes a summary of Jina Maha¯v¯ıra’s various hagiographies to demonstrate how narratives about the Jinas provide paradigms of ethical behavior and religiosity for monks and nuns to follow today. Jain renouncers are expected to abide by The Five Great Vows (maha¯vratas), the five forms of carefulness (samitis), and the three restraints (guptis) that directly reflect Maha¯v¯ıra’s behavior as described by these narratives. Furthermore, they endeavor to follow Maha¯v¯ıra’s example of austerity (tapas) and instruction to the Jain community. Laypeople follow the ethical principles of The Five Great Vows to a lesser extent than is expected of renouncers.

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Chapter Four explicates the connection between Jain women’s religiosity and popular narrative paradigms of “virtuous women.” Jain laywomen tend to be more religious than laymen in ways that more closely resemble renouncers. Furthermore, the majority of Jain renouncers are currently women, with four to five times more nuns than monks. There are far fewer Hindu and Buddhist female renouncers than male renouncers in South Asia. Unlike these two traditions, Jain literature includes an entire genre of popular narratives that provide exemplars of ideal religiosity for both laywomen and nuns. These narratives are about sat¯ıs (“virtuous women”) also called maha¯sat¯ıs (“great virtuous women”). Chapter Five focuses on narrative paradigms for laymen in stories about kings and gods. Both narrative and non-narrative Jain texts emphasize renunciation of worldly enjoyments and fortune in order to achieve moksa. Unlike most non-narrative texts, however, ˙ practicing Jainism results in the beneficial narratives describe how karma that leads to worldly benefits (such as good fortune and wealth) that are also important to lay Jains today. Narratives of kings and gods concerning da¯na (religious giving) and protecting Jain renouncers – two main religious duties of Jain laymen today – include both the worldly and spiritual rewards for these religious acts. The above chapters include narratives specific to different models of religiosity suitable for monks, nuns, laywomen, or laymen. Chapter Six, the conclusion, concerns narratives about types of religiosity shared by both renouncers and laypeople, or by both laymen and laywomen. Religious festivals, prayers and mantras, and the veneration of renouncers are prominent forms of such religiosity in all Jain sects and sub-sects; and devotional worship using images is also important among Digambara and S´veta¯mbaraMu¯rtipu¯jak laypeople. Just as there are narrative models of religiosity specific to the different members of Jain communities, there are narratives describing the origin, practice, and benefits of these shared religious practices as well.

CHAPTER TWO

Why Jainism survives: Jain sects and sub-sects Jainism’s survival in India was secured by the persistence of this tradition’s orders of monks and nuns. It would have been very difficult for Jainism to endure as a separate religion in India if those considered the most venerable and central to Jainism, monks and nuns, had not maintained lineages to the present day. Scriptural narratives describe lay Jains worshipping renouncers as the living embodiments of the Jain ideal because they actively follow in the footsteps of the Jinas by renouncing the world to achieve moksa. As ˙ Babb (1996, 23) states, this is still the case: “This is a fundamental matter: Jains worship ascetics, and this is the most important fact about Jain ritual culture.” The survival of Jain monks and nuns, and therefore also Jainism, is a puzzling mystery when compared with the history of Buddhism in India. Orders of Indian Buddhist nuns ceased to exist around the eighth or ninth centuries CE,1 when the position of Hindu women in India had also significantly declined.2 Orders of Buddhist monks also disappeared in most of India around the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries CE during Turkish invasions.3 Buddhism survived only in the Himalayan regions of India (which were difficult for foreign invaders to enter) largely because orders of monks and nuns persisted there.4 In contrast, there is textual and epigraphic evidence of Jain renouncers in India throughout this tradition’s history.5 I argue that Buddhism died out in most of India because Buddhist 15

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monks eventually changed certain rules and practices that had previously maintained renouncers’ poverty and itinerancy, while Jainism survived because Jains instead repeatedly reformed similar trends in their own tradition. Maintaining the strictness of renouncers’ practices and the reformation of laxity are so central to Jainism that they are connected to the formation of most Jain sects, sub-sects, and many other sub-groupings. Their centrality is also indicated by an entire genre of Jain narratives about reforming laxity, a few of which are included in this chapter. One reason that preserving the strictness of renouncers’ practice is considered so important in Jainism is that laypeople earn punya (good karma or merit) by giving only to those renouncers who ˙are worthy of veneration through their strict adherence to the Jain rules of renunciation. Therefore, this genre of narratives sometimes also includes laypeople, as well as monks, as the protagonists of reform. This unique emphasis in Jainism helps to explain the two key stages of Buddhism and Jainism’s differing histories and fates: (1) the demise of Buddhist nuns and the survival of Jain nuns in the eighth to ninth centuries CE, and (2) the demise of Buddhist monks and the survival of Jain monks and nuns in the thirteenth century CE.

The history of Buddhist and Jain nuns and monks The first stage of history, concerning orders of Jain nuns continuing beyond the ninth century CE, is important because Jain nuns do not just substantially outnumber monks today, but they also may have done so in the past as well. According to scriptural descriptions of each of the twenty-four Jinas’ communities of renouncers, there were more nuns than monks. Although there is no way to verify this due to the lack of any further demographic records, there are many more nuns than monks today, and this lends some support to these scriptural descriptions of nuns’ preponderance in the past. If this was indeed the case, then nuns would have been of greater importance in maintaining Jainism as a separate tradition in India, while Buddhist nuns would have been less important in this regard because there were more monks.

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Nancy Falk (1989[1980], 158–60), in her article “The Case of the Vanishing Nuns,” argues that the institutional subordination of Buddhist nuns to monks is one of the reasons that nuns’ orders did not survive in India.6 According to Falk, subordination meant lower status for Buddhist nuns, which resulted in less support from the laity, which in turn led to the disappearance of orders of Buddhist nuns in India during less prosperous times around the eighth or ninth centuries CE. However, this decrease in the support of Indian Buddhist nuns might not have happened if the rules of renunciation had not been changed in this tradition. Buddhist nuns in India fared better in early Buddhism,7 when there was the prescription of itinerancy for monks and nuns (except during the rainy season) and a mandatory minimum of possessions.8 In both early Buddhism and Jainism, renouncers were not allowed to reside in one place indefinitely, but instead traveled from place to place most of the year, teaching the laity in each locale as they went. Furthermore, both Buddhist and Jain renouncers were allowed only a few possessions and forbidden from handling money. The preservation of these practices helped to maintain orders of nuns and monks in Jainism, while the opposite took place in Buddhism. Scholars such as Schopen (2004) and Gutschow (2004) describe how Buddhist renouncers gradually adopted permanent residences, which in turn allowed them to accept larger donations and accumulate more possessions. New rules that allowed these changes were attributed to the Buddha’s concern that the laity should be able to earn punya (good karma or merit) by giving as much as they wanted ˙ 9 to renouncers, but these new rules also allowed for the possibility that Buddhist monks and nuns could become rich, despite the precept forbidding them from handling money. Schopen (2004, 78–81) reports that included among these new rules are those in the Mu¯ lasarva¯stiva¯da Vinaya (redacted in the fifth and sixth centuries CE), which is still used today by Tibetan/Himalayan Buddhist monastics. These rules address monastic endowments, wealth, and personal property, as well as monks giving interest-bearing loans to laypeople. From the fifth and sixth centuries CE these new, previously forbidden, practices were institutionalized in Buddhism rather than reformed, so that it became normal for many renouncers to be sedentary and live in richly funded monasteries or universities. The laity responded by giving as much as they could to monks, because

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there were no limits anymore to how much they could give, while they neglected nuns who were considered inferior fields of merit because of their subordination. In short, because monks were considered superior to nuns, laypeople believed they earned more merit by giving to the monks. According to Falk (1989[1980], 158) and other scholars, nuns’ lesser support from the laity during times of scarcity was inadvertent. However, Schopen (2004, 349) argues that monks felt competition from nuns for donations, and therefore deliberately strove to deprive them of this revenue. One way they did so was to create new rules subordinating nuns to monks around the fourth and fifth centuries CE. According to Schopen this indicates that nuns were not already subordinated in these ways because otherwise there would have been no need to create these new rules.10 If there had been successful reforms of medieval Buddhist laxity, then Buddhism might have continued to thrive in India. For example, if reforms had preserved the itinerancy of Buddhist monks and nuns, so that they could not accumulate property and wealth, perhaps Buddhist laypeople would have continued to support nuns. After giving what they could to Buddhist monks (which would have been considerably less), it would have been necessary for the laity to also give to nuns in order to keep accumulating merit. Instead, I Ching (the Chinese pilgrim who traveled to India in the seventh century CE) recorded that Buddhist nuns at that time were poor and begged for food, while monks “lived in richly endowed monasteries,” but did not assist these unfortunate nuns.11 Whereas Indian Buddhist nuns eventually went from poverty to almost complete disappearance, Jain nuns survived this period of Indian history and are still thriving today. Sedentary monasticism was not permanently institutionalized in Jainism, as it was (and still is) in Buddhism. Jain monks did not have monasteries in which to store larger donations so that laypeople might have responded by giving only to monks while neglecting nuns. Orders of Buddhist monks, and therefore Buddhism as a whole, succumbed to the later Turkish invasions in the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries CE, while Jain orders of renouncers survived these invasions as well. Mitra (1954, 147–160), Jaini (1980), and Long (2009, 70–71) assert that one of the reasons for these differing fates was that Buddhist renouncers did not maintain strong ties with the laity, while Jain renouncers did. Indeed, as Indian Buddhist

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monasteries became independently wealthy so that ties with Buddhist laypeople became unnecessary for support, this lack of ties to the laity could have led to the disappearance of Buddhist monks in most of India when foreign invasions eliminated their financial independence. During Jainism’s history similar laxity started to develop from time to time, but instead of being permanently institutionalized, as it was in Indian Buddhism, it was repeatedly reformed so that most Jain renouncers continue to have few possessions and remain itinerant today. Jain renouncers have historically depended on the laity for daily needs and so they continued to maintain strong ties to the laity. Furthermore, itinerancy also allowed, and still allows, Jain renouncers to maintain relationships with much larger numbers of laypeople in different locations. It is difficult to destroy a religion in which the pillars of that religion (i.e. renouncers) have no fixed abode, while it is much easier to destroy one if those pillars depend on great Buddhist monasteries and universities that can be looted and/or demolished.12 Since Indian Buddhist monasteries and universities were repositories for wealth and land, foreign invaders were more likely to target them for appropriation. Buddhist monks would then have been faced with living a less comfortable lifestyle because the revenue on which they had grown to depend would have been eliminated. Furthermore, their independence from the laity for their daily existence, as well as lack of connections with the laity of different and safer locations, would have worked against them. Even if fleeing and evicted Buddhist monks had asked laypeople in safer locations to support them, these laypeople might have balked at accepting the responsibility of donating enough wealth to support them. This would have been a much larger burden than the very little needed to support fleeing Jain renouncers. Therefore, two of the most important reasons for Buddhist and Jain renouncers’ differing fates involve poverty and wandering. Whereas Buddhist renouncers eventually became sedentary, accumulated possessions, and accepted large-scale gifts from laity, these three practices remained unacceptable and proscribed in Jainism by the renouncers’ vow of aparigraha (non-possession/nonattachment). The result of changes in Buddhist rules probably created situations similar to those in contemporary Tibetan/ Himalayan Buddhism. In both Tibetan/Himalayan Buddhism and

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Jainism one of the main religious practices of laymen is giving donations, and for the same reasons: merit and prestige.13 However, while Buddhist laymen give a great deal directly to monks and monasteries, Jain laymen cannot do the same. Jain laymen give away a tremendous amount of wealth. However Jain renouncers cannot receive it themselves, but instead give directions, suggestions, or “blessings” about where to direct this charity.14 Although this means that some senior monks (and a few respected nuns) have indirect control of great resources, the wealth donated by Jain laymen does not go directly to renouncers. Instead, it is spent on temples, health clinics, schools, libraries, a¯ s´ramas, animal shelters, and temporary residences for renouncers. Since Jain laypeople are wealthy compared with other demographic groups in India, such giving is not burdensome for them. However, even if they were poor, they would still have enough to be able to support both nuns and monks, who can accept and rely on very little for themselves. Therefore, Jain renouncers’ continued existence did not, and still does not, depend on the continued prosperity of the laity as it probably did for renouncers in Indian Buddhism.

Jain sects and sub-sects The charity of laymen as well as the poverty and wandering of most renouncers remain central in Jainism today, regardless of sect or sub-sect. The two main sects or branches of Jainism are the S´veta¯mbara/S´veta¯mbar, who now live largely in the northwest of India, and the Digambara/Digambar, who live throughout western and central India. The S´veta¯mbara and Digambara sects also divided into sub-sects and sub-groups.15 The Digambaras are divided into the B¯ısapanth, Tera¯panth, and Ta¯ranpanth sub-sects. B¯ısapanth and ˙ of statues in temples, while Tera¯panth worship includes the use Ta¯ranpanth worship is done in front of scriptures. The S´veta¯mbaras ˙ are divided into the Mu¯rtipu¯jak, Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı, and Tera¯panth subsects. The S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jaks are also sub-divided into groups called gacchs, three of which are the Kharatar, Tapa¯, and Añcal Gacchs. One of the principal differences between the two main Mu¯rtipu¯jak Gacchs (the Kharatar and Tapa¯ Gacchs) concerns nuns. Tapa¯ Gacch nuns have traditionally been restricted from preaching to audiences that include men and also have not been allowed

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to study all the Jain scriptures (although this is slowly changing now),16 while Kharatar Gacch nuns have no such restrictions. Finally, the Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı divided into several samprada¯ys, the largest of which are the Jña¯ngacch I and Sa¯dhuma¯rg¯ı.17 Among S´veta¯mbaras, Jains belonging to the Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı and Tera¯panth sub-sects do not engage in image worship, unlike the Mu¯rtipu¯jak sub-sect and the majority of the Digambara sect. While many image-worshipping Jains wear a cloth over their mouths on ritual occasions, the Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı and Tera¯panth renouncers wear a muhpatt¯ı (mouth guard) most of the time in order to not harm living beings in the air. The above divisions were caused by differences in orthopraxy, with stricter Jain practices being asserted by emerging divisions and then sometimes counter reformations by the allegedly lax group. From the earliest division between the S´veta¯mbara and Digambara sects there has been a long-standing tension about what practices are deemed austere enough. The Jain laity is still very proud of the strict conduct of renouncers and is very watchful to ensure it continues. This austerity is necessary so that lay Jains may earn punya by providing Jain renouncers with necessities. If renouncers are˙ not sincere or are lax, it is believed that laypeople will not karmically benefit in this way.

Aparigraha: Non-possession in the Śvetāmbara and Digambara sects The first major schism of the Jain community, into the S´veta¯mbara and Digambara sects, was partly the result of a disagreement about how strictly the vow of non-possession/non-attachment (aparigraha) should be followed by monks. Around the same time Buddhist rules were being changed as described above, this Jain schism solidified at the Council of Valabh¯ı (fifth century CE) when, despite the absence of Digambaras, S´veta¯mbaras decided on canonical scriptures.18 The debate about whether or not monks should wear clothing was arguably the most important concern, which in turn produced a dispute about whether women could attain moksa ˙ because they could not renounce clothing.19 The Digambaras (“sky-clad”) argued that it is impossible to reach moksa without renouncing all clothing as part of the vow of ˙

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aparigraha, which only men can do. Therefore, women must be reborn as men to be able to renounce clothing and achieve moksa. However, the S´veta¯mbaras (“white-clad”) argued that clothing is˙ a necessary possession for the spiritual path and that women can achieve moksa. Accordingly, S´veta¯mbara renouncers and Digambara ˙ nuns wear white clothing, while the highest Digambara monks (munis) wear no clothing.20 Although there are other disagreements between S´veta¯mbaras and Digambaras, the main issue is connected to the vow of nonpossession/non-attachment as it relates to whether or not monks should renounce clothing, with Digambaras criticizing the wearing of clothing as a form of laxity. According to the Digambara story of this schism21 there was a famine in India during which it was difficult for monks and nuns to obtain alms from laypeople, and so ¯ ca¯rya Bhadraba¯hu led a migration of many Jain renouncers from A the north to the south of India, while others opted to remain in the north. When the southern monks finally returned to the north, they found that that the northern monks (headed by A¯ca¯rya Sthu¯labhadra) had decided upon a canon of texts with which the southern monks disagreed, and also had succumbed to laxity by deciding to wear white clothing. There are many other rules concerning the vow of aparigraha in S´veta¯mbara and Digambara texts. According to the Das´avaika¯lika Su¯tra, a S´veta¯mbara text that is studied by candidates for initiation and newly initiated renouncers, the vow states, I hereby abstain completely from keeping any possession. Wherever I am, in a village, city or forest; whether the object less or more, minute or gross, living or non-living; I will not keep any possession; neither will I induce others to do so, or approve of others doing so. All my life I will observe this great vow through three means and three methods. In other words, throughout my life I will, through mind, speech and body, neither do, induce others to do or approve of others doing such an act of keeping any possession (4. 14).22 The Das´avaika¯lika also states, It is under the influence of greed that even those who have become ascetics indulge in a vice like hoarding, that is what I

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believe. An ascetic who has even a trace of a desire to collect should be considered a householder not a renouncer (6. 19).23 One who is not attached to his clothing and other equipment, who is free of all worldly ties, who collects alms from unknown families, who does not allow his discipline to become worthless by faults, who remains away from sale, purchase and storing, and who is untouched by any indulgences, he alone is a bhikshu [monk] (10. 16).24 According to the rules of aparigraha Jain monks and nuns are only allowed a certain prescribed set of necessary possessions, they should not feel any attachment to these possessions, they should not accumulate anything beyond the prescribed possessions, and the laity should give only food and other necessities directly to renouncers. There are many rules from the earliest Jain texts about the very few articles of clothing and other requisites monks and nuns were allowed to use, which limited both the quantity and quality of those articles. These rules are largely still followed today.25 For example, an earlier S´veta¯mbara text, the A¯ca¯ra¯n˙ga Su¯tra (2), contains a long list of rules concerning proper clothing for renouncers, including lists of clothing that renouncers are proscribed from accepting, such as beautifully designed or expensive cloth.26 The S´veta¯mbara Nis´¯ıtha Su¯tra (18. 21–64) states that renouncers should not buy clothes themselves nor ask someone else to do so.27 The S´veta¯mbara Das´avaika¯lika Su¯tra (6. 20) states that an alms-bowl (pa¯tra), soft broom (rajoharana) to brush insects away unharmed, and blanket are allowed ˙to renouncers.28 Later S´veta¯mbara commentaries (starting in the seventh century CE) add more allowable articles so that renouncers could have between two and twelve or fourteen. These requisites included such items as a cloth to cover and clean bowls/pots, a sheet to cover the blanket, a stick to clean mud from the feet during the rainy season, a cloth to cover the mouth (muhpatt¯ı), and a tall stick (danda) for walking.29 Early Digambara ˙ ˙ Digambara monks as only the texts list the requisites for naked peacock feather broom (picchika¯) to brush insects to safety and a pot/gourd (kamandalu) of water for cleansing.30 However, by the ˙ ˙ Anaga¯racarma¯mrta in the thirteenth century, time of A¯s´a¯dhara’s texts also sometimes included seat (vr˙s¯ı) and religious books.31 ˙ still only have the items Generally, Jain monks and nuns 32 prescribed by the above texts. However, S´veta¯mbara renouncers

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may also temporarily borrow other items they might need from the laity such as books, clocks, and pens;33 and the Digambara laity allows monks materials for writing books.34 So while the rules for Buddhist renouncers were being changed to allow for property, wealth, and business dealings around the fourth to sixth centuries CE, rules for Jain renouncers during that same time and later remained strict and were relaxed very little. Another difference between Buddhist and Jain orders concerns non-possession as it relates to food. While sedentary orders of Buddhist monks in India had enough funds to feed themselves, Jain renouncers have never been allowed to store food with which to cook meals, nor been allowed to cook food themselves. Instead, they were required to go on daily alms collections, and this is still one of the main ways Jain renouncers maintain ties with the laity. The earliest and later S´veta¯mbara su¯tras (such as the A¯ca¯ra¯n˙ga, Su¯trakrta¯n˙ga, Uttara¯dhyayana, Kalpa, Das´avaika¯lika, Brhatkalpa ˙ are still bha¯sya˙) show a continuing inclusion of strict rules, which ˙ adhered to today, for obtaining food from householders. These include not being able to accept food specially prepared or purchased for renouncers, not accepting food from a king, not accepting food from a householder giving them lodging, taking only small amounts of food from several (as opposed to one or two) houses in order not to cause hardship to any household, and not storing food obtained this way for later consumption.35 Digambara renouncers’ rite of obtaining food is different. The laity invites them to their homes where laywomen have already prepared a meal that they will feed them should they accept their invitation,36 or renouncers go out to search for a proper meal with the laity calling invitations to their homes along the way.37 However, Digambara monks and nuns still eat only once a day in the morning and are limited in how much food they may eat.

The narrative of Mahāgiri and Suhastin Canto eleven of The Lives of the Jain Elders, written by the S´veta¯mbara monk Hemacandra (1089–1172), contains a narrative critique of laxity related to what Jain renouncers are allowed, and not allowed, to accept from the laity. This story is about two monk leaders and preachers, Maha¯giri and Suhastin, as well as the King

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Samprati.38 As Maha¯giri and Suhastin wandered from place to place they eventually came to the city of Pa¯tal¯ıputra where there lived a merchant named Vasubhu¯ti. Suhastin˙ had previously converted Vasubhu¯ti to Jainism and so Vasubhu¯ti invited Suhastin to come to his home in order to teach his kinsfolk Jainism as well. While Suhastin was there, Maha¯giri arrived and Suhastin bowed to him. The merchant exclaimed, “Who is this man who has come here and is welcomed by you with such respect? Is he senior to you?” Suhastin said, “Merchant, he is certainly senior to me. He only accepts as alms leftover food and drink. If such food is not offered to him, then he fasts. Even the dust on his feet should be welcomed with honour and treated with respect.” (Verses 12–14) When Maha¯giri later went to Vasubhu¯ti’s relatives for alms, he discerned that the food they offered him had been saved specifically for him and so he therefore could not accept it. Confronting Suhastin he said, “You have acted contrary to the rules of monastic conduct and have committed a great misdeed, for, acting on your instruction they set aside food especially for me.” Grovelling at the honourable Maha¯giri’s feet, Suhastin begged forgiveness, repeatedly promising that he would not do it again. (Verses 21–22) Not long afterward Maha¯giri and Suhastin left for Avanti to attend a religious ceremony. King Samprati was also in attendance, and when he caught sight of Suhastin he fainted. When the king was revived he remembered Suhastin from a previous life in which King Samprati had been a starving beggar whom Suhastin had initiated as a Jain monk. He realized that the karmic consequence of his previous initiation was that he had been reborn as a king in his current life, and so King Samprati thereafter became a devoted Jain layman focused on acts of charity and the support of the Jain religion. The king made arrangements to provide for monks by telling his vassals to use their wealth to serve Jain monks, rather than to continue offering it to him. He told those in “barbarian countries”

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who paid him taxes to pay them instead to Jain monks by giving them alms. He told the kitchen staff, who provided food to the poor, to give any left-over food to monks. And he told merchants, who sold food and clothes, that he would reimburse them if they gave their merchandise to Jain ascetics. However, the rules of aparigraha forbade Jain renouncers from accepting such largess. But the honourable Suhastin, despite knowing that there was fault in the king’s action permitted it through affection for his pupils, his intelligence polluted by power. Then the honourable Maha¯giri said to Suhastin, “Why have you accepted food from the king, although you knew that such was not to be accepted.” Suhastin said, “Reverend sir, the subjects do the same as the king. For intent on obliging the king, the citizens also make gifts.” Honourable Maha¯giri cried angrily, “This is a deception! May your sin be forgiven. Henceforth, we two will go our separate ways. It is good for monks who follow the path of right conduct to associate together, but you have transgressed the path, since you have broken the rules of right conduct.” Trembling with fear like a child, Suhastin bowed before honourable Maha¯giri in worship, his hands folded in respectful supplication. He said: “I have done wrong. I have acted very badly through my lack of insight. Forgive my offence. I shall not do the same thing again.” Maha¯giri said, “Perhaps you are not at fault. For the reverend Lord Maha¯v¯ıra previously prophesied: ‘After the passing of Sthu¯labhadra from the line of pupillary succession begun by me, the previous excellent conduct of Jain monks will begin to deteriorate.’39 After Sthu¯labhadra, we two became the leaders of the monastic order, so his prophecy has been fulfilled by you.” (Verses 113–122) Maha¯giri and Suhastin then went their separate ways. Some time after this they both eventually fasted to death and were reborn in one of the heavens, and King Samprati faithfully followed the vows of a layman so that he was reborn as god after he died.

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Aparigraha: Itinerancy in the Śvetāmbara and Digambara sects The practices of poverty and alms collection are less likely to be preserved if renouncers become sedentary, as was the case in Indian Buddhism. In Jainism, itinerancy is part of the vow of aparigraha (as non-attachment) so that renouncers do not become attached to a particular place. The tradition of itinerancy, except during caturma¯s (the four month rainy season retreat),40 originally practiced by Jina Maha¯v¯ıra according to the Kalpa (1.5.119), is still preserved today from earlier periods of Jainism. This is attested to by passages in the earliest S´veta¯mbara texts such as the Vipa¯ka Su¯tra and A¯ca¯ra¯n˙ga Su¯tra (200 bce);41 the somewhat later Chedasu¯tras such as the Brhatkalpa, Vyavaha¯ra, and Nis´¯ıtha;42 and ˙ a¯sya.43 It is also attested to in Digambara the medieval Brhatkalpa bh ˙ ˙ 44 texts such as Mu¯la¯ca¯ra. Although the tradition of itinerancy was preserved, it was altered somewhat. In S´veta¯mbara texts, the earlier A¯ca¯ra¯n˙ga Su¯tra specifies that renouncers should stay in a village for only one night and a town for only five nights, while the later Das´avaika¯lika Su¯tra (second Addendum: 11) allows renouncers to stay as long as one month in one place, and the later Brhatkalpa allows monks to stay ˙ four months (1. 11) in certain two months (1. 6–7) and nuns to stay places under certain circumstances.45 Likewise, the Digambara Mu¯la¯ca¯ra (second century CE) also specifies one day in a village and five days in a town generally, but also seems to allow for a onemonth stay as well.46 The later Digambara Anaga¯racarma¯mrta (thirteenth century CE) indicates that the normal period to stay˙ in one place during itinerancy was one month,47 but also prescribes harsh penance to renouncers who stay at a residence to which they are attached.48 Various scholars report that renouncers of different sects and sub-sects still follow the rules of itinerancy today, staying between a few days and a month at one place.49 Although there was a slight relaxing of itinerancy in the medieval period, in allowing one-month stays, it was nonetheless preserved as an important practice.50 However, if Jain renouncers had not remained itinerant I believe the temptation for some lay Jains to give larger and larger donations, out of devotion and for religious merit, would have been too great. Giving to renouncers is perhaps the most desirable religious act to

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the laity. Laidlaw (1995, 327) reports that renouncers are only allowed to receive food from the laity when they stay in one place during the four-month rainy season retreat, and so the possibility of giving inappropriate gifts to renouncers while they are temporarily sedentary is curtailed by this rule. However, the temptation to give monks and nuns inappropriate gifts is still particularly strong at this time. Although there are many pious lay Jains who insist on the continued asceticism of monks and nuns, I have occasionally witnessed the giving of inappropriate gifts. For example, in one town a generous layperson had installed an air-conditioner in one of the rooms of the nuns’ temporary residence. This was understandable because it was the most sweltering hot season in years and the nuns were becoming ill frequently from the heat, but the giving, acceptance, and/or use of such a gift is prohibited in Jainism. In the end it did not matter, however, because these nuns could not take the air-conditioner with them when they left to resume their itinerancy. If they had stayed there permanently, I could imagine some laypeople attempting to make them more and more comfortable, which could have eventually led to a more luxurious residence.

Laxity and reform Although itinerancy and non-possession have been preserved in Jainism, there have also been sedentary renouncers for periods of Jainism’s history, indicating that Jainism could have gone the way of Indian Buddhism. Dundas (1987–8, 190) argues that the Nis´¯ıtha bha¯sya (third to fourth century CE) and its commentary or cu¯rni ˙ (seventh century CE) opened the door for sedentary renunciation ˙in Jainism. The former gives some exceptions to wandering (such as a famine, danger, or illness), and the latter states that renouncers may remain sedentary for study. Indeed, the medieval period of Jainism saw both laxity and reforms of this laxity. For example, in the late medieval period until the mid-nineteenth century there were a number51 of S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jak yatis and s´r¯ıpu¯jyas who displaced traditional Jain renouncers, engaged in business, owned property, and were often wealthy.52 From the thirteenth centuries onward there were also a number53 of Digambara bhatta¯raks who also displaced traditional monks, ˙˙

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administered wealth and land, were the heads of monasteries, and collected and preserved manuscripts.54 From the ninth through eleventh centuries there were Digambara kuratti adigal s in Tamil ˙ ˙ and who Nadu, who were learned and sedentary female teachers had the funds and land to donate for images and to support nunneries.55 Furthermore, inscriptions indicate that Jain monks were sometimes given land by patrons.56 For example, there is epigraphic evidence that a king granted some land for the purpose of feeding Jain renouncers, and evidence that a particular monk was granted an entire village for healing a prince.57 However, there have been repeated reforms of laxity in Jainism from the medieval period through to more recent history.58 Reforms during the medieval period of S´veta¯mbara Jainism in particular, while not completely eliminating laxity among all Jain renouncers, were nonetheless significant in preserving traditional austerity. So although there is historical evidence of laxity, there is also much evidence of reform. First, S´veta¯mbara commentaries indicate that the laity acted to correct lax monks during the medieval period.59 Second, there is evidence in medieval epigraphs of monks correcting the lax behavior of other monks, including the dismissal of lax monks and the creation of new reformatory rules.60 Third, there is a record from 1242 that the four-fold community of Jain monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen was convened in the capital of Gujarat and issued edicts to stop the sedentary renunciation of caityava¯sins (sedentary “temple-dwelling” renouncers), although some sedentary renunciation continued anyway.61 Fourth, during the supposed disappearance of Digambara monks around three hundred years ago, some had actually secretly retreated to the forest in order to preserve the strictness of their practice.62 Fifth, a Digambara laymen in the seventeenth century, Bana¯rasida¯s, led the reform movement against the bhatta¯raks.63 Sixth, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries S´vet˙a˙¯ mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jak itinerant renouncers and laity largely eliminated yatis and s´r¯ıpu¯jyas for their laxity and wealth.64 Seventh, the Digambara tradition of naked monks experienced a revival during the early twentieth century.65 Finally, various S´veta¯mbaraMu¯rtipu¯jak gacchs and S´veta¯mbara sub-sects were created in part to reform laxity.

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The formation of Śvetāmbar-Mūrtipūjak gacchs: The legend of the Monk Jineśvarasūri From the twelfth to sixteenth centuries S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jak gacchs were formed to correct lax conduct.66 In particular the founders of the Añcal Gacch and the Kharatar Gacch criticized the caityava¯sins for not being itinerant, and Kharatar Gacch monks were able to virtually eliminate these caityava¯sins. Jagaccandrasu¯ri, the founder of the Tapa¯ Gacch (the largest group of Jains today), criticized the laxity of other Jain renouncers.67 Indeed the gacch’s name derives from the term tapa (austere practice) that Jagaccandrasu¯ri emphasized. And there were further reforms to correct developing Tapa¯ Gacch laxity up until the seventeenth century.68 The hagiography of the monk Jines´varasu¯ri is one Jain narrative concerning the formation of different Mu¯rtipu¯jak gacchs in order to reform laxity, and more specifically concerning the formation the Kharatar Gacch. The word kharatar means “formidable” or “fierce,” and the Kharatar Gacch was so named because of Jines´ varasu¯ri’s formidability in debate. Jines´varasu¯ri officially received this title of “formidable” in 1024 CE from a king who hosted a debate between Jines´varasu¯ri and caityava¯si (“temple-dwelling”) renouncers who argued that they should be able to own property and reside in temples. However, the narrative about this debate does not begin with Jines´ varasu¯ri, but instead with his teacher, the monk Vardhama¯na.69 Vardhama¯na was originally the student of a monk named Jinacandra. As Vardhama¯na studied Jain doctrine he was disturbed to learn that the act of renouncers living permanently in monasteries, as was his teacher’s practice, was contrary to Jain scriptures. After asking his teacher’s permission, he and a few other monks left in order to start practicing itinerancy themselves. Soon after this Vardhama¯na met the scholar and monk Jines´varasu¯ri, who asked Vardhama¯na to accompany him to Gujarat where the Jain monks resided in monasteries. When they reached the city of Anahilapattana in Gujarat, they could not find a ˙ ˙them ˙ Jain household to provide lodging, and so Jines´ varasu¯ri secured a place for them to stay in the mansion of the priest employed by King Durlabh. Word spread in the city that these visiting monks believed that Jain renouncers should not permanently

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reside in any one abode, and the local Jain monks (who lived permanently in monasteries) became alarmed and challenged them to a debate in front of the king. The local temple-dwelling monks arrived at court first, took their seats, and then accepted the betel (a mild stimulant) the king offered them to chew. However, when Vardhama¯na, Jines´ varasu¯ri, and their fellow monks arrived next, Vardhama¯na declined the king’s betel as unsuitable for renouncers and announced that Jines´ varasu¯ri would be the one to debate Su¯ra¯ca¯rya of the temple-dwelling monks. Su¯ra¯ca¯rya opened the debate by referring to a recently written philosophical text and by stating that those who lodge temporarily with laypeople are not those of the accepted religions, including Jainism. Jines´ varasu¯ri then asked the king if he ruled by the ancient traditions of his ancestors, to which the king answered affirmatively. He then asked the king if he would therefore send for the ancient scriptures in Su¯ra¯ca¯rya’s monastery so that he could refer to them in the debate. After the king’s men brought the texts into the assembly, Jines´varasu¯ri spotted the Das´avaika¯lika and read from it, “A monk should live in a dwelling that has not been made exclusively for his own use, that has a place for him to ease his bodily needs, and that is not frequented by women, eunuchs and beasts” (8.51). This verse, Jines´varasu¯ri explained, proscribes living in a monastery or temple. King Durlabh was impressed and so asked Jines´ varasu¯ri to be his teacher. However, when the king attempted to honor him by offering him a throne of jewels, Jines´varasu¯ri replied, If a monk adorns his body he will surely break his vows. O Best of Kings! And he will be a laughing stock among the people. He will get attached to such things and too much accustomed to comfort. It is not right for someone who desires release to make use of thrones and such things. Jines´ varasu¯ri and his fellow monks had now made enemies of the temple-dwelling monks and their supporters, and so King Durlabh offered them a safe place to stay and also food to eat. To the latter offer Jines´varasu¯ri replied that it is forbidden for Jain renouncers to accept food from a king, and so the king assigned a soldier to protect them when they went out to collect alms. The temple-dwelling monks then sent gifts to the queen (to whom King

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Durlabh was devoted) to gain her support, but this plot failed. Next they threatened to leave the city if the king did not withdraw his support from Jines´ varasu¯ri and his fellow monks, but the king remained steadfast in his support. Thereafter, Vardhama¯na was held in high honor by the king, and he and his monks wandered freely from place to place in King Durlabh’s kingdom. Eventually the time finally came when Vardhama¯na handed over his disciples to Jines´ varasu¯ri, and fasted to death to be reborn as a god.

The formation of the Śvetāmbara-Sthānakavāsī and Terāpanth sub-sects: The legend of Ācārya Bhiksū ˙ There are also similar narratives about reforming laxity connected to the founding of the S´veta¯mbara-Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı and Tera¯panth subsects of the S´veta¯mbara sects. These two sub-sects were formed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries respectively in part to encourage stricter practices.70 The Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı sub-sect emerged out of the Mu¯rtipu¯jak Lon˙ka¯ Gacch, which was formed in 1471 by the Jain layman Lon˙ka¯ S´a¯h (ca. 1415–1489).71 Lon˙ka¯ S´a¯h led a movement against two practices he criticized as inappropriate innovations: (1) the Mu¯rtipu¯jak practice of using images in temple worship and (2) sedentary monasticism. Lon˙ka¯ S´a¯h was murdered by sectarian adversaries, and eventually laxity and worship using temple images reasserted themselves within the Lon˙ka¯ Gacch. Therefore, two Lon˙ka¯ Gacch monks (Lav and Dharmasin˙ha) created the Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı subsect in 1644 in order to return to stricter practices. ¯ ca¯rya Bhiksu¯, who was The Tera¯panth sub-sect was founded by A ˙ a¯nakava¯s¯ı born in Marwa¯r Rajasthan in 1726 and became a Sth monk. He eventually criticized the laxity of his fellow monks, which included living permanently in buildings constructed for them (rather than remaining itinerant), going to the same households repeatedly for food (rather than taking only a little from many different households), and handling money (rather than adhering to the vow of non-possession that forbade this). The hagiography of A¯ca¯rya Bhiksu¯’s eventual creation of his own sub-sect starts when he is a Stha¯˙ nakava¯s¯ı monk under A¯ca¯rya Raghuna¯tha.72 At that time, the Jain laypeople in the town of

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Ra¯janagar decided they would refuse to give alms to Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı monks until their lax conduct was corrected. Therefore, A¯ca¯rya Raghuna¯tha told Bhiksu¯ to spend the rainy season retreat there in ˙ to once again support the monks. Once order to persuade them there, Bhiksu¯ learned that the monks these laypeople alleged were ˙ lax were indeed so, but did not know what to do about this situation. The conflict in his mind between A¯ca¯rya Raghuna¯tha’s instructions and the laxity of these monks resulted in his falling seriously ill. However, when he finally resolved to study the ancient texts in order to understand proper practice, his illness went away. After spending the rainy season retreat concentrating on this study, he told the laypeople of Rajanagar that he would present his findings to his guru A¯ca¯rya Raghuna¯tha who then might resolve the situation. However, Raghuna¯tha disagreed with Bhiksu¯’s findings. During ˙ that because they one debate between them, Raghuna¯tha argued were in a degenerate world-age, enlightenment was possible even if someone maintained correct practice as a renouncer for only as little as an hour. Bhiksu¯ rebuked that if that were all that was ˙ sa then he would hold his breath for an necessary to achieve mok hour. Even though Bhiksu¯˙passed two years attempting to convince ˙ his guru to eliminate laxity, Raghuna¯tha remained intransigent. So, in 1759, Bhiksu¯ and twelve other like-minded monks broke away ˙ from A¯ca¯rya Raghun a¯tha’s order so that they would be able to adhere to the rules prescribing poverty and wandering. Raghuna¯tha responded to this rebellion by spreading rumors that would dissuade laypeople from supporting them. Despite the difficulties this caused, this new Tera¯panth¯ı sub-sect soon grew and gained support.73

Conclusion: Innovations and laxity Although there are important differences between Jain sects, subsects, and other sub-groupings, these differences are not as pronounced as those found between different schools of Buddhism in various countries. This is partly because Jainism did not spread beyond India (necessitating adaption to foreign cultures) as Buddhism did, and also partly because Jain schisms were motivated by the desire to reject practices that were criticized as lax innovations in order to return to traditional ascetic practices such as poverty and wandering.

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However, all innovations have not always been rejected; the creation of different sects, sub-sects, and other groups are innovations that survive to this day. Furthermore, recent changes in different Jain communities have also been accepted or rejected based on whether or not they are considered lax. For example, some recent innovations have been accepted in the Tera¯panth sub-sect. A unique feature of this sub-sect is that there is only one a¯ca¯rya at a time who is able to dictate the entire sub-sect’s development, including any ¯ ca¯rya Tuls¯ı (1914–1997), changes he sees fit.74 The ninth a¯ca¯rya, A made changes to improve the lives of women, and this was accepted ¯ ca¯rya Tuls¯ı introduced a lesser (or by his community. Also, in 1980 A intermediary) type of renouncer called samans (m) and saman¯ıs (f) ˙ ˙ who are allowed to travel in vehicles, handle money, live permanently in one place, and accept food specially prepared for them. This new type of lesser renouncer was created specifically for missionary reasons, because full renouncers cannot travel abroad to teach Jainism to laypeople living outside of India. However, most Tera¯panth monks and nuns are still full-fledged renouncers for whom the above allowances are strictly prohibited, and so the Tera¯panth community did not reject this innovation as laxity. And although the samans and saman¯ıs are not meant to be full renouncers, ˙ not allowed ˙ to accumulate possessions, so it is they are nonetheless difficult to equate them with the lax renouncers in Jainism’s past.75 However, other modern innovations in the Stha¯nakva¯s¯ıV¯ıra¯yatan samprada¯y have not been accepted by most Jains. The ¯ ca¯rya Candana¯, oversaw these first female a¯ca¯rya in Jain history, A 76 innovations. V¯ıra¯yatan renouncers travel in vehicles and are sedentary instead of itinerant. Furthermore, her community in Bihar is purposed toward mitigating the effects of local poverty by providing vitamins, food, free medical care and operations, and other services. Most Jain laypeople expect renouncers to be itinerant as well as to be detached from the world and the people in it; and most Jain laypeople consider it only suitable for laity to be engaged in charity at one locality. So although there are Jains who support the V¯ıra¯yatan community and these innovations, other Jains criticize these practices as forms of laxity and violations of the rules of ¯ ca¯rya Candana¯’s renunciation. It is largely for this reason that A becoming the first female Jain a¯ca¯rya has not led the way for other women to become a¯ca¯ryas in other communities of Jain renouncers.

CHAPTER THREE

Jain ethics and exemplars for renouncers: The twenty-four re-founders ( Jinas) of Jainism The universe has always existed and will always exist, according to Jain doctrine. In the current time-cycle, however, there have been twenty-four enlightened Jinas “victors” (also called T ¯ırthan˙karas “ford/bridge-builders”)1 who taught the Jain Path of Purification,2 which purifies the soul of karma. Although scholars debate these dates,3 Jains believe that the twenty-fourth and last Jina, Maha¯v¯ıra, lived from 599 BCE to either 527 BCE (according to the S´veta¯mbaras) or 510 BCE (according to the Digambaras). The narratives of each of the Jinas often include their previous lives, as well as their conception, birth, renunciation, enlightenment, and passing away as Jinas. They also describe how each of the twenty-four Jinas re-established the four-fold Jain community symbolized by the four arms of the sva¯stika.4 In the order of their general status in the Jain hierarchy, this four-fold community still consists of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. This chapter is mainly about Jain monks and nuns. Monks are often called muni, sa¯dhu, and maha¯ra¯j regardless of sect or sub-sect, 35

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while nuns are often called a¯ryika¯ and ma¯ta¯ (Digambara), sa¯dhv¯ı (S´veta¯mbara), or maha¯sat¯ı (S´veta¯mbara-Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı). Although there is only one type of renouncer (whether male or female) in most S´veta¯mbara sub-sects, these renouncers are also organized according to hierarchies based on seniority as well as organizational or leadership positions. The S´veta¯mbara-Tera¯panth sub-sect is unusual in that it has recently created a second type of renouncer: samans (male) and saman¯ıs (female), the vast majority of which are saman¯ıs.5 Samans and ˙ saman¯ıs are lower in status than full ˙ ˙ ˙ renouncers of either gender because their asceticism is less strict, allowing them to minister to Jain communities abroad (see Chapter Two). Otherwise, all S´veta¯mbara monks are considered somewhat higher in status than nuns, although nuns are also highly respected. In the Digambara sect there is a complex hierarchy of celibate renouncers corresponding to the difficulty of their austerities at each level. 1. At the top of the hierarchy are munis (male) and a¯ryika¯s

(female). While munis never wear any clothing, a¯ryika¯s are required to wear a minimum of modest white clothing. 2. Below them are ailaks (male), ksullaks (male), and ksullika¯s ˙ ˙ (female), who all wear white clothing. 3. The lowest in the Digambara hierarchy are brahmaca¯rins (male) and brahmaca¯rin¯ıs (female). Their practices are the least difficult, but ˙many Digambaras first become brahmaca¯rins or brahmaca¯rin¯ıs before progressing to the ˙ above them. more difficult levels of asceticism Normative Digambara doctrine accords only naked munis the status of full-fledged renouncers, as only they have the formal ritual status of renouncers. In practice, however, Digambaras consider a¯ryika¯s, ailaks, ksullaks, and ksullika¯s to have the socio-religious ˙ ˙ usually view brahmaca¯rins and status of renouncers as well, but brahmaca¯rin¯ıs as lay-ascetics.6 Digambaras believe that it is necessary to˙ renounce clothing to achieve moksa, which only men ˙ also believe that may do when they become munis, and therefore women must be reborn as men to achieve moksa. However, women are still able to make significant spiritual˙ progress as nuns. Furthermore, some Digambara nuns are nonetheless higher in status than some monks, even though monks have a higher status

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within each level of this Digambara hierarchy. For example, the female ksullika¯s are lower in status than the male ksullaks, but the ˙ ˙ a¯s. male ksullak s are lower in status than the female a¯ryik ˙ The purpose of becoming a monk or a nun is to make significant progress in achieving liberation (moksa or nirva¯na) from the cycle ˙ of reincarnation (samsa¯ra) by eliminating karmic˙ particles from the ˙ soul. Every soul (j¯ıva) is divine, genderless, and has the same four infinite “qualities” of infinite knowledge, infinite perception, infinite bliss, and infinite power or energy. Microscopic karmic particles bound to the soul prevent one from experiencing these infinite qualities (and therefore from achieving moksa), and also propel one ˙ heavenly beings, and from rebirth to rebirth as humans, animals, hell beings. Jain soteriology, therefore, involves inhibiting the accumulation of more karmic matter (a process called samvara) and ˙ purifying the soul of the karmic matter that has already accumulated (a process called nirjara¯). Samvara necessitates adhering to the ethical principles of The Five ˙Great Vows of (1) non-violence or non-harming, (2) truth, (3) no stealing, (4) chastity, and (5) nonpossession/non-attachment. In order to adhere to these ethical principles, the “passions” (anger, pride, deceit, and greed) must also be eliminated because they cause the ethical violations of these vows that, in turn, cause the accumulation of more harmful karmic matter. Nirjara¯, on the other hand, requires practicing twelve different types of austerities (tapas): six external austerities (most of which involve fasting and bodily mortification) and six internal austerities (including penance, humility, service, religious study, renunciation, and meditation). There are two types of narratives that inform Jains’ understanding of the ethical principles and soteriology described in this chapter. First, there are many Jain narratives about great people, including the Jinas, who epitomize the principles and practices described above, and thereby provide models of religiosity for Jains to follow today. These narratives often describe The Three Jewels of Right Faith, Right Conduct, and Right Knowledge in characters’ lives as they have a spiritual awakening (Right Faith) that inspires them to adopt Jain practices and ethics (Right Conduct) that, in turn, leads to perfect omniscience (Right Knowledge). However, these guiding narratives are balanced with many other stories of the second type, stories that describe the harmful karmic consequences of violating Jain ethical principles. Both types of narratives are told to children

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by their mothers and grandmothers, and to the laity by renouncers, in order to describe the consequences of either adhering to or violating Jain principles. This chapter includes an example of the former type of narrative that remains particularly influential among Jains today. The following summary of Jina Maha¯v¯ıra’s various hagiographies illustrates how Maha¯v¯ıra epitomizes Jain ethics and provides a guiding paradigm for Jain renouncers today by describing how he achieved moksa by practicing both samvara and nirjara¯. ˙ ˙

Sam . vara: The Hagiographies of Jina Mahāvīra7 There are similarities in the narratives of the twenty-four Jinas. For example, each Jina’s mother has fourteen (according to S´veta¯mbara texts) or sixteen (according to Digambara texts) auspicious dreams when she conceives a Jina-to-be in her womb. Each Jina is born into a royal family of the warrior/ruler caste (ksatriya), and the gods ˙ Meru for his ritual celebrate his birth by bringing him to Mount bath. Eventually each Jina renounces to become an ascetic, achieves kevala (omniscience), and then travels and preaches to assemblies of humans, animals, and gods in order to re-found Jainism and to re-establish the four-fold community of Jain monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. Finally, at death each Jina achieves moksa or nirva¯na and freedom from rebirth, their enlightened souls (j¯ıva˙s) floating ˙to the top of the universe to join all the other liberated souls, never to be reborn again. Some hagiographies8 of the Jina Maha¯v¯ıra include his previous lives in which he sometimes gave in to the passions, violated Jain ethical principles, and experienced the karmic consequences of all this. He was eventually reborn as prince Vardhma¯na who became the twenty-fourth Jina, Maha¯v¯ıra. Maha¯v¯ıra’s conception was rather unusual, according to some S´veta¯mbara narratives, and highlights Jainism’s rejection of the authority of Hindu brahmin priests. Instead of remaining in one womb before his birth, he was transferred from the womb of Deva¯nanda¯ (of the brahmin caste) into the womb of Tris´ala¯ (of the warrior caste), and Tris´ala¯’s embryo was likewise transferred to Deva¯nanda¯’s womb.9 It was Indra (also called S´akra), king of the gods, who made the decision to transfer

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the embryos because he knew that Jinas cannot be born into certain families (such as poor, low, or brahmin families) and instead must be born into noble ksatriya families. The priestly brahmin caste was ˙ superior caste among the larger Hindu considered the most population during the time Maha¯v¯ıra lived, and Indra was one of the most important Vedic gods to which brahmin priests directed their rituals (see Chapter One). However, Maha¯v¯ıra was considered too great to be born into that caste, and Indra is described as a patron of Jainism in Jain narratives. Also according to S´veta¯mbara versions of this narrative, Maha¯v¯ıra’s non-violent or non-harming disposition was evident for the first time while he was still in Tris´ala¯’s womb. First, while he was still an unborn baby he decided to refrain from any movement so that his mother would not experience discomfort. However, when she became anxious about the possibility of a miscarriage, he moved to let her know he was alive. Second, her sense of distress and concern for him while he was still in her womb motivated him to vow not to renounce until his parents had passed away, according to S´veta¯mbara texts, so as not to cause them any harmful distress by leaving them. Maha¯v¯ıra’s father (Siddha¯rtha) was a minor ruler of the warrior/ ruler caste, and so he was born into the luxury of a noble family. Narratives describe how the gods took Maha¯v¯ıra to Mount Meru to worship him with a ritual bath and to celebrate his birth,10 and how his parents named him Vardhma¯na (one who increases prosperity) because their fortunes increased while Tris´ala¯ was pregnant. According to S´veta¯mbara narratives, Maha¯v¯ıra had a wife (Yas´oda¯) and daughter (Priyadars´ana¯), and did not renounce until after his parents passed away. Digambara narratives, on the other hand, maintain that Maha¯v¯ıra was never a husband or a father, and that he renounced before his parents’ death and with their permission. After Maha¯v¯ıra gave away his great wealth, both gods and humans celebrated his renunciation with great splendor and a procession with Maha¯v¯ıra seated on a golden palanquin. He then renounced worldly life, pulling his hair out by the roots in five handfuls to show his determination. Jain monks and nuns today also renounce householder life, just as Maha¯v¯ıra did. They usually choose to renounce (instead of marry) when they are young adults. However, sometimes they leave their spouses to renounce after marriage, sometimes married couples decide to renounce at the

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same time, and sometimes they renounce after their spouses have passed away. As in narratives about Maha¯v¯ıra’s renunciation, laypeople celebrate monks’ and nuns’ initiations with great pomp and expense.11 Finally, Jain renouncers also pull their hair out by the roots two to five times a year (depending on the sect and subsect), but only a little at a time and often with the help of another renouncer. Narrative accounts of Maha¯v¯ıra’s life after his renunciation describe him as an examplar of the Right Conduct still expected of most Jain renouncers today. For example, the following is paraphrased from the S´veta¯mbara Kalpa Su¯tra (1.5.118–19). Thereafter, the venerable ascetic Maha¯v¯ıra wandered homelessly. He was careful not to harm any living being while he was walking, speaking, begging for and accepting alms, moving any items, and disposing of bodily waste products. He practiced selfrestraint in his thoughts, words, and actions. He guarded his senses and his celibacy. He was free of anger, pride, deceit, and greed; with calm and equanimity, he was free from the accumulation of more karma. Without egotism and property, Maha¯v¯ıra had renounced all worldly attachments and so was not stained by the world.[. . .] Except during the four-month rainy season, the venerable Maha¯v¯ıra remained itinerant, staying in villages for only a single night and in towns for only five nights. He was indifferent to unpleasant odors and the pleasant smell of sandalwood, to straw and jewels, to dirt and gold, and to pleasure and pain. He was not attached to this world or to what is beyond it, to living or to dying. He stopped the accumulation of more karma to reach the other shore of samsa¯ra. ˙ The above excerpt describes how Maha¯v¯ıra’s behavior was in accordance with The Five Great Vows (maha¯vratas) of (1) nonviolence/ non-harming (ahimsa¯), (2) truth (satya), (3) non-stealing (asteya), (4) sexual restraint ˙(brahmacarya), and (5) non-possession/ non-attachment (aparigraha). All S´veta¯mbara renouncers, as well as Digambara munis and a¯ryika¯s, take The Five Great Vows when they are initiated. A sixth vow was eventually added to this list prohibiting the consumption of food or drink after sunset because insects are more likely to be killed while doing this in the dark.

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Renouncers should avoid breaking these vows deliberately or through simple carelessness, and should repent and perform a penance if they are broken. S´veta¯mbara laypeople may take “lesser” versions of these vows if they so wish, but they instead usually opt to adhere to these ethical principles as best they can without taking these vows. Celibate Digambara ailaks ksullaks, ksullika¯s, ˙ ˙ brahmaca¯rins, and brahmaca¯rin¯ıs all take the “lesser” versions of ˙ these vows that are nonetheless extremely strict for ksullika¯s, ksullaks, and ailaks.12 Therefore, these latter three are also˙ treated as˙ monks and nuns, although non-narrative Digambara texts describe them as advanced laypeople. This excerpt also describes how Maha¯v¯ıra practiced the five forms of carefulness or self-regulation (samitis) and the three restraints (guptis) that are prescribed for renouncers as part of their practice of non-violence. The five samitis refer to carefulness in refraining from harming any living being while (1) walking, (2) speaking, (3) accepting alms, (4) moving any item, and (5) disposing of food or bodily waste products.13 The three guptis involve restraining (1) physical, (2) verbal, and (3) mental actions. This includes refraining from speaking, from moving, and from thinking about non-religious subjects for long periods of time.14 Finally, this excerpt describes how Maha¯v¯ıra was free from the “passions” (kasa¯ya) of attraction and aversion (including anger, pride, deceit, and˙ greed) that Jain monks and nuns also endeavor to eliminate. Laypeople focus mostly on ethical actions toward humans and animals according to the values of The Five Great Vows. However, renouncers are expected to: practice all five vows physically, mentally, and verbally; not to ask anyone to do anything in violation of these vows; and not to approve of anything anyone does that violates them. For example, Jain laypeople are generally expected to conduct themselves with honor by being honest in what they say, and also in their business dealings, according to the values of truth and non-stealing. However, the vow of non-stealing (asteya) requires that renouncers never take anything that is not given, nor ask someone else to take it, nor even think about taking it. Also, the vow of truth (satya) not only requires truthful speech of renouncers, but also silence if the truth will harm someone. It also proscribes any types of speech motivated by the passions such as gossip, exposing confidences, verbal abuse, verbosity, idle chitchat, and vulgarity.15

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Furthermore, non-violence means that Jain laypeople and renouncers are strict vegetarians (not vegans) so that no animals, including fish, are physically killed for their food. However, monks’ and nuns’ vow of non-violence or non-harming (ahimsa¯) prohibits ˙ harmful thoughts, words, and deeds and requires a general attitude of carefulness, friendship, and compassion toward all living beings. This is an extremely difficult discipline because it means that renouncers are not even supposed to feel anger toward any person or any living thing. Although non-violence is one of the means by which one avoids suffering oneself (by avoiding the karmic consequences of violence) and achieves moksa, this is not as selfish ˙ To be soteriologically as it would at first appear to be to the non-Jain. efficacious, non-violence (in thoughts, words, and actions) must also be motivated by compassion and the knowledge that all living beings (just like oneself) do not want to suffer.16 Renouncers’ practice of non-violence (ahimsa¯) is much stricter ˙ than laypeople’s in physical ways as well, especially in regard to the smallest of living beings. For example, while laypeople regularly ride in vehicles (e.g. planes, trains, and automobiles) when they travel from place to place, the vow of non-violence means that renouncers are not allowed to do so because of the small living beings (such as insects) that are killed by these vehicles. Instead, they must walk barefoot wherever they go. Without shoes or sandals, they are more careful not to step on and kill any small creature on the ground. Monks and nuns (not laypeople) are equipped with soft brooms they use to sweep the ground in front of them while walking in the dark so that they will avoid stepping on any small insects on the ground. Monks and nuns (not laypeople) are required to check their clothing for insects that might be killed when they move.17 Laypeople are allowed to use electricity and fire (e.g. for light or cooking) even though Jains believe their use harms the minute living beings inhabiting them. Monks and nuns, on the other hand, may not use fire at all and there are various limits on their use of electricity resulting from debates concerning new technologies such as cell-phones. Jain monks and nuns may only drink water that has been boiled and filtered, and therefore free from microscopic organisms that would be killed when the water is ingested. Jain laypeople may do this if they wish, but it is not required, and they also boil the water they give to renouncers. The beneficial karma they receive from supporting those on the path to

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moksa far outweighs the harmful karma they receive from killing ˙ microscopic organisms when they boil this water. Also, S´veta¯mbaraStha¯nakava¯s¯ı and Tera¯panth¯ı monks and nuns wear a white mouthguard so as to not harm any living being in the air, but laypeople usually only cover their mouths with cloth during certain religious rites and occasions. Whether or not laypeople officially take the “lesser” version of the vow of sexual restraint, they are expected to refrain from sex outside of marriage, and there is also a small percentage of laypeople who adopt complete celibacy after their children are born. However, the vow of sexual restraint (brahmacarya) means that renouncers are prohibited from performing any sexual acts whatsoever, from talking about sex, and even from thinking about sex. This also involves restraint of the senses in general and freedom from feelings of attraction or aversion to sense objects, as described in these parts of the excerpt. He [Maha¯v¯ıra] guarded his senses and his celibacy [. . .] He was indifferent to unpleasant odors and the pleasant smell of sandalwood, to straw and jewels, to dirt and gold, and to pleasure and pain. There are many rules regarding the celibacy of monks and nuns. Some of these rules are meant to curtail monks’ and nuns’ attractiveness.18 For example, Jain renouncers are prohibited from wearing jewelry, applying scented oil, or making themselves attractive in other ways.19 Other rules serve to keep renouncers from touching members of the opposite sex in any way, meeting them too often, or meeting them alone.20 Not only are most renouncers never allowed to touch a person of the opposite sex, they are also never allowed to touch something that is also being touched by a person of the opposite sex at the same time.21 For example, a monk could not hand an object to a woman directly, because they would both be touching that object at the same time for a brief instant; instead he might give it to a layman to hand to her, or he might place it on the ground in front of her. Digambara renouncers, however, are allowed to touch members of the opposite sex in blessing them. Renouncers also do not allow any person of the opposite sex to visit them after sunset, or to visit them when there is not someone else of the same sex present. Furthermore, most monks

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and nuns are not allowed to reside close to each other or in the same building.22 There are more restrictions placed upon nuns than monks, partly because they are more vulnerable to sexual aggression and rape.23 For example, while monks may sometimes travel and live alone (although this is unusual), nuns do so in groups of three or more because there is safety in numbers.24 Also, Digambara nuns may not renounce their clothing and remain naked (as male Digambar munis do), in part because it would invite sexual attacks.25 Non-possession/non-attachment (aparigraha) is also much more restrictive for Jain renouncers than it is for laypeople. Jain laypeople do not need to embrace poverty like monks and nuns. On the contrary, many laypeople accumulate a great deal of wealth, but they are also expected to demonstrate non-attachment to this wealth by giving large amounts of it to charity. Monks and nuns, on the other hand, are required to renounce wealth and property, to cultivate mental equanimity, and to eliminate the passions of greed or attachment, just as Maha¯v¯ıra is described as doing in the following part of the excerpt. Without egotism and property, Maha¯v¯ıra had renounced all worldly attachments and so was not stained by the world.[. . .] He [Maha¯v¯ıra] was not attached to this world or to what is beyond it, to living or to dying. According to the vow of non-possession/non-attachment renouncers today are not even allowed to physically touch money. This means that Jain monks and nuns rely on laypeople for everything they need (including food, shelter, and clothing) because they cannot accumulate it themselves, nor can they even touch the money needed to buy it. However, according to the rules of aparigraha renouncers may accept only a very limited amount of food and requisites from the laity, and are required to cultivate a lack of attachment to them. There are some common ways this is practiced in every sect and sub-sect. For example, all renouncers receive their food from lay households, and are not allowed to store any of this food for later consumption. However, the specifications concerning the necessities monks and nuns are allowed to accept from the laity differ between sects and sub-sects. For example, Maha¯v¯ıra renounced his clothing at the time of his renunciation according to Digambara narratives. Therefore, while lesser Digambara monks and nuns are allowed to

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wear limited amounts of white clothing they receive from the laity, the highest Digambara munis do not wear any clothing at all. However, Maha¯v¯ıra did not renounce his clothing at the time of his renunciation according to S´veta¯mbara narratives, but instead was not attached to it. S´veta¯mbara narratives describe Maha¯v¯ıra giving half his cloth to a poor brahmin, and also not stopping to retrieve the other half when it was caught on some thorns while he was walking. Therefore, S´veta¯mbara renouncers are allowed to wear minimal white clothing that is given to them by laypeople, but they are not supposed to be attached to that clothing. Maha¯v¯ıra’s itinerancy described in this excerpt is also a part of renouncers’ vow of non-possession/non-attachment. Except during the four-month rainy season, the venerable Maha¯v¯ıra remained itinerant, staying in villages for only a single night and in towns for only five nights. The rules of aparigraha specify that Jain renouncers (regardless of sect or sub-sect) should remain itinerant most of the year so that they do not become attached to any specific locale or home.26 The main exception to this is caturma¯s (the four-month rainy season retreat) when monks and nuns are required to stay in one location because the ground is teeming with small creatures that could be trampled and killed if they were itinerant during the rains.27 Other exceptions to itinerancy for individual renouncers include if they are too old or sick to travel, or if they need to remain in one place to study or write. Jain renouncers and laypeople are closely interconnected because of the vow of aparigraha, even though their lives are very different. This vow gives laypeople the opportunity to earn large amounts of good karma by providing small amounts of food and other necessities to renouncers. It also means that renouncers interact with, and give religious guidance to, many laypeople in different locations.28 The Five Great Vows, the five self-regulations, and the three restraints all inhibit the collection of harmful karma (samvara) ˙ when practiced correctly. However, a mental disposition of equanimity and compassion is necessary for correct practice. Therefore, renouncers must also follow Maha¯v¯ıra’s example to overcome the “passions” (kasa¯ya): mental/emotional states such as ˙ greed. anger, pride, deceitfulness, and

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He [Maha¯v¯ıra] was free of anger, pride, deceit, and greed; with calm and equanimity, he was free from the accumulation of more karma. Actions motivated by these passions lead to violations of these vows and restrictions, which in turn leads to the further accumulation of harmful karma. Therefore, the Right Conduct of renouncers is very difficult because they must be consistent, determined, and mindful of virtually everything they do, think, and say. Although it is sometimes challenging to refrain from actions or speech that violates these rules, it is even more challenging to control thoughts and emotions. However, this is not all that is required of renouncers. Like Maha¯v¯ıra, renouncers must also practice austerities that burn away the karma that they have already accumulated (nirjara¯).

Nirjarā: The story of Jina Mahāvīra Nirjara¯ involves practicing austerities (tapas)29 to purify the soul of karmic particles and also to help eliminate the passions. According to the Tattva¯rtha Su¯tra (9. 19–20), a scripture shared by both S´veta¯mbaras and Digambaras, there are twelve austerities: six external austerities and six internal austerities. The six external austerities are: fasting, semi-fasting or reduced diet, voluntarily limiting the variety and the manner of seeking food, giving up delicacies or a stimulating diet, lonely habitation, and mortification of the body. The six internal austerities are: penance, reverence [humility], service, scriptural study, renunciation and meditation.30 Although laypeople also practice some austerities, such as fasting,31 a monk or nun is expected to live a life of austerity. The six external austerities include a wide variety of fasts, the most difficult of which is one month without food under a doctor’s supervision.32 The external austerities also include ways of reducing the amount of food eaten. For example, renouncers may take a vow to accept only certain foods under only certain circumstances from laypeople. This is done without divulging what those specifics are so that these monks and nuns must fast indefinitely until the conditions are met. Monks

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sometimes undertake temporary periods of solitude, but most monks and nuns now live and travel in groups and are often surrounded by laypeople wherever they go. However, they are still supposed to avoid locations that might tempt them to break any vows. Bodily mortification includes enduring heat, cold, insects, etc., and sometimes also means standing in one position for an uncomfortably long period of time or assuming various uncomfortable bodily positions. Of the six internal austerities, penance refers to the confession of ethical violations to a guru (spiritual teacher/guide), repentance, and expiation by some added austerity such as fasting.33 Reverence and service largely refer to honoring, venerating, and serving senior renouncers and one’s own guru, which all require the cultivation of humility. Study not only refers to religious learning and the memorization of scriptures, but also to teaching junior renouncers and preaching to the laity.34 Finally, renunciation and meditation largely refer to renouncing bodily concerns and the passions in order to meditate on the soul and other religious topics. Some of renouncers’ rules and practices are connected both to samvara and nirjara¯. For example, renouncers wear only a limited ˙ amount of white clothing (and Digambar munis do not wear any clothing at all) as part of the vow of non-possession (aparigraha). They do this regardless of how cold the weather becomes, so it is also considered to be an external austerity of bodily mortification (nirjara¯). There are also practices that are considered only a part of nirjara¯, such as renouncers’ practice of pulling their hair out by the roots two to five times a year. All of these austerities necessitate that Jain renouncers cultivate a high degree of consistency and mental discipline to concurrently and successfully practice The Five Great Vows, the five self-regulations, and the three restraints. Compassionate actions, speech, and thoughts toward all living beings are much easier while living a life of comfort and ease rather than living the austere life of a renouncer. Austerities (tapas) are associated with spiritual or supernatural power, partly because every soul is characterized by infinite perception, infinite knowledge, infinite bliss, and infinite energy or power. Therefore, infinite power is within all living beings, but the experience and expression of that power is limited by the karma that covers the soul and therefore obscures its four infinite qualities. Although samvara stops the accumulation of more karma, it is ˙ nirjara¯ that increases the experience of the soul’s infinite power by

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purifying the karmic matter that obscures it. This increasing power may be used as further fuel for spiritual progress as well as to help others (see also Chapter Four and Six). This is one of the reasons that Jain renouncers sometimes describe celibacy as the most important of The Five Great Vows,35 even though non-narrative Jain texts generally describe nonviolence as the most important and also describe the other vows as supporting non-violence. For example, non-narrative texts link sexual activity to violence for two reasons: (1) because it is motivated by passion; and (2) it is believed to cause the death of microscopic organisms inhabiting the human sexual organs. However, the Tattva¯rtha Su¯tra (9. 26, 9. 38) also describes how the internal austerities of renunciation and meditation eliminate the passions of aversion and attraction, including lust. Celibacy in actions, speech, and thought is therefore also an internal tapas practice that helps to purify the karma that obscures the infinite power of the soul. Indeed, narrative texts often illustrate how celibacy accumulates great spiritual and supernatural power (s´akti).36 Jain renouncers often describe celibacy in ways similar to these narrative texts. For example, that celibacy accumulates and stores the spiritual power that either originates in the soul, is present in the body, and/or is produced by austerities (tapas), and that this power is the source of spiritual progress as well as physical and mental wellbeing.37 Celibacy is so important to Jain renouncers that they are allowed to commit suicide if they cannot follow this vow or if they are about to be raped,38 and it is commonly believed that one instance of sexual activity can expel from a monk or nun all the spiritual power he or she has accumulated up to that point. Furthermore, it is also generally believed that monks and nuns who have never been sexually active are more powerful than other monks and nuns who had been married before they renounced.39 All austerities (both internal and external) are believed to produce spiritual power, however many Jains believe that external tapas practices are more effective in doing so. Renouncers endeavor to practice external tapas by enduring with equanimity any outside hardships resulting from their own karma, as well as by deliberately burning off their karma through difficult and harsh practices such as fasting. Likewise, scriptural narratives describe Maha¯v¯ıra’s tolerance of the hardships he encountered from other people, demons, and animals, and his practice of difficult austerities including

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wandering, fasting, nakedness, and lack of sleep and shelter.40 For example, the S´veta¯mbara A¯ca¯ra¯n˙ga Su¯tra, (1.8.2. 5–10) states, The Venerable One, exerting himself, did not seek sleep for the sake of pleasure; he waked up himself, and slept only a little, free from desires. Waking up again, the Venerable One lay down, exerting himself; going outside for once in a night, he walked about for an hour. In his resting places he sustained fearful and manifold calamities; crawling or flying animals attack[ed] him. Bad people, the guard of the village, or lance bearers attacked him; or there were domestic temptations, single women or men; Fearful and manifold (calamities) of this and the next world; pleasant and unpleasant smells, and manifold sounds: Always well controlled, he bore the different sorts of feelings; overcoming carelessness and pleasure, the Bra¯hman na ˙ wandered about, speaking but little.41 Although both Digambara and S´veta¯mbara narratives describe Maha¯v¯ıra’s hardships in the twelve to thirteen years before he achieved kevala (omniscience), S´veta¯mbara narratives include many details that are omitted by Digambara texts, which instead describe Maha¯v¯ıra taking a vow of silence during those years.42 For example, the S´veta¯mbara Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra contains more detailed ˙ ˙a¯˙v¯ıra wandered ˙ from place to place, sometimes accounts of how Mah being greeted with hostility and sometimes with both men and women becoming sexually attracted to him, all of which he bore with equanimity. It also contains more detailed accounts of the “calamities” Maha¯v¯ıra calmly faced. The following is a very short summary of one of those accounts. One day Maha¯v¯ıra happened upon a village and asked their permission to stay in the local temple, but was informed that the temple was built to appease a vengeful yaksa (minor god) so it ˙ would stop causing an illness that was ravaging the village. The yaksa had been a bull in a previous life. It had become so ˙ exhausted from pulling his master’s goods that his caring master had to leave the bull with the villagers, giving them money to

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nurse it back to health. The villagers, however, took the money for themselves and left the bull to die. After being reborn as a yaksa, it was consumed with vengeful anger. It was therefore not safe˙ for Maha¯v¯ıra to stay in its temple, the villagers explained, because the yaksa had killed all the travelers who had tried to ˙ However, Maha¯v¯ıra refused their invitations stay there at night. to stay in their homes, and instead entered the temple. At first the angry yaksa tried to terrify Maha¯v¯ıra with horrible laughter ˙ and by appearing as a dangerous elephant, but Maha¯v¯ıra was unmoved. The raging yaksa then tried to kill the calmly indifferent Maha¯v¯ıra, but nothing he˙ did was successful. After several hours, the yaksa became calm himself and bowed down to Maha¯v¯ıra, asking ˙his forgiveness. Knowing the yaksa was now ready, ˙ it to non-violence. Maha¯v¯ıra explained karma to it and converted The above excerpt is an example of how narratives describe the great exemplars of Jainism facing and overcoming the most fearsome and dangerous of obstacles, and also how narratives describe the converting influence of non-violence. Similarly, some Jain monks and nuns today are known for their success in fearlessly and non-violently dealing with demons and ghosts,43 and it is still believed today that non-violence (and an attitude of friendship toward all) often wins over the few antagonists they may encounter. Along with Maha¯v¯ıra’s fearless forbearance and converting nonviolence, the above excerpt also illustrates how Maha¯v¯ıra’s practice of non-violence did not make him more vulnerable than someone who might be willing to defend himself violently. This is also true in S´veta¯mbara accounts of Maha¯v¯ıra’s life that involve Makkhali Gosa¯la. These narratives pertain to Jain beliefs about the protective and supernatural power that can be obtained through practicing austerities,44 the individual effort and responsibility emphasized in Jain soteriology, and the gods who watch over and protect pious Jains. According to S´veta¯mbara texts,45 Makkhali Gosa¯la learned about Maha¯v¯ıra’s supernatural powers and asked to be his disciple to attain them himself. However, Gosa¯la is described as a scoundrel who was prone to violence, deceit, anger, and pride. Once when he angered another ascetic by ridiculing him, Maha¯v¯ıra used his supernatural power (resulting from his austerities) to save Gosa¯la from this ascetic. Indeed, Gosa¯la constantly brought trouble upon

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himself in ways that resemble some present day adolescent boys. He repeatedly ridiculed other people, spied on lovers and was discovered, and he even placed his penis in the mouth of a temple statue. Although Gosa¯la received beating after beating when he was discovered doing these things, he never took responsibility and, instead, developed a Fatalist (A¯j¯ıvika) philosophy. This fatalism contrasts greatly to Jainism’s emphasis on individual responsibility (everyone determines their own karmic fate) and individual effort (moksa can be achieved only by one’s own effort); and narratives about˙ Maha¯v¯ıra and Gosa¯la highlight this contrast. While Gosa¯la complained and raged, Maha¯v¯ıra bore hardships with equanimity, knowing they purified the karma that he was responsible for collecting in his past lives. He accepted responsibility for this karma and also for the individual effort involved in purifying it from his soul by (1) enduring hardships and by (2) practicing austerities such as fasting. Jain monks and nuns endeavor to do the same today. As Maha¯v¯ıra and Gosa¯la traveled together they also encountered various difficulties that were unrelated to Gosa¯la’s misbehavior, including violent attacks by various men. However, the gods came to Maha¯v¯ıra’s rescue again and again, and his own spiritual power (s´akti) protected him. Indeed, Jain narratives frequently describe various supernatural beings (such as gods) coming to aid of great religious people,46 and describe how their own spiritual power protects them as well.47 Many Jain renouncers believe that the same holds true for them today. For example, there are two incidents (one that happened in Chennai and one in Maharashtra) that are well known among S´veta¯mbara-Tera¯panth¯ı nuns and that are often interpreted the same way. In both cases hostile men tried long and hard to break into the buildings where some nuns were staying for the night, and in both cases these men failed.48 S´veta¯mbara and Digambara narratives then describe how Maha¯v¯ıra achieved omniscience (kevala) at the age of forty-two, after twelve to thirteen years of travails and austerities. The following is an example from the S´veta¯mbara Kalpa Su¯tra (120). In a squatting position with joined heels, exposing himself to the heat of the sun, after fasting two and a half days without drinking water, being engaged in deep meditation, [Maha¯v¯ıra] reached the highest knowledge and intuition, called Kevala, which is infinite, supreme, unobstructed, unimpeded, complete and full.49

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Jain doctrine holds that all living beings (including humans) can only partially see or understand reality or the truth; not until they achieve kevala (omniscience) are they able to have a total understanding of the truth and the nature of reality that is “unobstructed” and “unimpeded” by karma. After achieving kevala, Maha¯v¯ıra preached to people regardless of their status and gender, winning many followers and establishing the four-fold community of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. Accounts of this part of Maha¯v¯ıra’s life describe how the gods reconstructed an arena wherever Maha¯v¯ıra stopped to preach, and also describe the people, animals, and gods who gathered in and around it to listen to him.50 Digambara narratives differ somewhat in their description of Maha¯v¯ıra’s preaching because according to this sect the Jinas do not perform normal human functions, such as talking, after they have achieved kevala. Therefore, Digambara narratives instead describe him emitting a sacred sound that was translated by his nearest disciples to those who were listening. After a long life of teaching Jainism, Maha¯v¯ıra achieved moksa when he passed away, and his soul is believed to still reside at the˙ top of the universe with all the other enlightened souls, including all the Jinas before him. Jain renouncers today strive to follow Maha¯v¯ıra example of non-violence, austerity, and instruction to the Jain community. For this, they are deemed worthy of worship by Jain laypeople, just as all the enlightened souls at the top of the universe are also deemed worthy of worship.

Conclusion Narratives about Maha¯v¯ıra, and the other Jinas, provide guiding paradigms for modern-day Jain monks and nuns. Monks and nuns renounce householder life, just as Maha¯v¯ıra did. Monks and nuns strive to make spiritual progress through asceticism as Maha¯v¯ıra did. Most are itinerant as Maha¯v¯ıra was, and self-effort and individual responsibility is still emphasized. Also, monks and nuns remain active in the Jain community, just as Maha¯v¯ıra was when he commenced to preach and proselytize after he achieved kevala. Finally, The Five Great Vows and the ascetic code of conduct directly reflect Maha¯v¯ıra’s behavior as described in Jain scriptures.

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There are many other Jain narratives about exemplars of Right Conduct, such as Maha¯v¯ıra, that explain the spiritual rewards of adhering to Jain ethics, practices, and principles. However, the other main way Jain narratives communicate the importance of Right Conduct is by describing the negative karmic consequences of succumbing to the passions and violating the ethical principles enumerated in The Five Great Vows. Jain narratives of this type describe characters engaging in harmful behaviors that seem to exist in every culture such as theft, fraud, deceit, calumny, adultery, sexual assault, hypocrisy, and murder. Some of these narratives also provide particularly good descriptions of verbal and emotional violence or abuse (which were proscribed in Jain scriptures over a thousand years before Western psychologists started to examine them51), as well as narcissistic and sociopathic personality disorders.52 However, these same narratives often do not stop with describing how such individuals cause their own rebirths in hell. They often also describe them eventually experiencing a spiritual awakening (Right Faith), changing their fate (Right Conduct), and achieving kevala (Right Knowledge).53 Therefore these narratives demonstrate that no matter how unethically, abusively, or violently someone has behaved in the past, he or she may choose to change by following Jain principles. These people often then decide to renounce and become monks or nuns in these stories, convinced that the answer lies in escaping the vagaries of karmic fortune that they themselves have caused. However, narratives also sometimes describe spiritual progress toward moksa happening more slowly over many lives, by ˙ conduct of a Jain layperson before choosing people first adopting the to renounce in a future life. These are the same two choices open to Jains today, and relatively few choose to become monks and nuns in their current lives. Finally, these narratives also demonstrate that no one is inherently better or worse than anyone else; even the Jinas caused their own rebirths in hell before becoming the most venerated and exalted of all Jains.

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CHAPTER FOUR

Exemplars for nuns and laywomen: Virtuous women Jain mothers usually stress religiosity more with their daughters than with their sons, and they do this partly to prepare their daughters for their duties as wives. Many wives and mothers enjoy presiding over their families’ religiosity, and women of all Jain sects and sub-sects tend to be more religious than men in various ways.1 While Jain laymen’s religiosity tends to be more sporadic and largely consists of religious donations,2 laywomen’s religiosity tends to include more practices shared with renouncers.3 Although the vast majority of Jain women are laywomen,4 the majority of Jain renouncers are nuns. There are now approximately four to five times more Jain nuns than monks.5 This preponderance of nuns may not seem surprising considering Jain women’s religiosity. However, it is actually quite unusual in South Asia where there are far fewer Hindu and Buddhist female renouncers than male renouncers, and where these female renouncers generally receive far less support and respect than their male counterparts.6 In contrast to other South Asian religions, it is likely that renunciation has always been an honorable and respectable choice for Jain women. Although Jain monks tend to receive more respect from the laity, Jain nuns today are also

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respected. Indeed, entire Jain communities organize initiation (d¯ıksa¯) celebrations for both men and women when they renounce,7 and˙virtually all Jain women today must choose between marriage and renunciation in their late teens and twenties.8 There is also another way that Jainism is unusual in South Asia: it is the only religion in which there is an entire genre of narratives that provides paradigms of ideal religiosity for both laywomen and nuns. These narratives are about sat¯ıs or “virtuous women,” also called maha¯sat¯ıs or “great virtuous women.” Whereas in Hinduism only faithful wives are considered sat¯ıs,9 in Jainism both faithful wives and nuns are considered “virtuous women.”10 While Hindu narratives about sat¯ıs are about faithful wives, the many Jain narratives about sat¯ıs are usually about faithful wives who eventually become nuns.11 The majority of the Jain sat¯ı-narratives were composed between the sixth and twelfth centuries CE,12 but they are still told by renouncers in sermons to laypeople. Furthermore, these stories are so popular today that their media include contemporary books and novels in vernacular languages,13 dramas,14 videos, songs, audiocassettes,15 and the Internet. The sat¯ıs are often described as the sixteen maha¯sat¯ıs, the sixteen “great virtuous women.” However, there are many more than sixteen in Jain narratives,16 including Ra¯j¯ımat¯ı, Prabha¯vat¯ı, Subhadra¯, Puspacu¯la¯, S´iva¯, S´¯ılavat¯ı, Añjana¯, ˙ ¯ı, and Padma¯vat¯ı. There are Sulasa¯, Cellna¯, Madanarekha¯, Mrga¯vat ˙ also some sat¯ıs shared by Hinduism and Jainism, such as Mainasundar¯ı, S¯ıta¯, Kunt¯ı, Draupad¯ı, and Damayant¯ı. While the Hindu versions of these narratives emphasize only wifely virtues within marriage, the Jain versions emphasize both wifely virtues and renunciation. Furthermore, there are a few Jain narratives about sat¯ıs who never married before becoming nuns, such as Candanaba¯la¯, Bra¯hm¯ı, and Sundar¯ı. Interestingly, many nuns (and sometimes monks) interpret stories about married sat¯ıs as relevant to their lives as renouncers,17 and many laywomen interpret stories about sat¯ıs who never married (before becoming nuns) as relevant to their lives as wives.18 The heroines of these narratives provide models of piety and chastity for both laywomen and nuns (and sometimes monks as well), and also describe the spiritual power that results from these virtues. The following narrative about Sat¯ı Damayant¯ı (Davadant¯ı) illustrates the religiosity of laywomen and nuns in a variety of ways.

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Marriage: The story of Satī Damayantī19 Both in narratives and contemporary life, when a Jain woman marries she usually leaves her parents’ home to live with her husband in a joint family that often includes her husband’s parents, one or more of his brothers, and his brothers’ wives and children.20 This is often a stressful transition at first, because the bride is leaving behind those she loves and also because she often does not have much status in her new family until she gives birth to her first son. However, living with an extended family often provides more support for each member. The new bride benefits from this because the women in these joint families usually stay at home to share household chores and to help raise each other’s children. Grandparents and children often benefit the most. Grandparents benefit because they are taken care of in their old age, and children because they are protected and loved not just by their parents, but also by aunts, uncles, and grandparents. The beginning of Sat¯ı Damayant¯ı’s narrative describes her conception, birth, and childhood in a Jain family, as well as her transition into marriage. One night the queen Pus´padant¯ı had a dream of a white elephant coming inside the palace to take refuge from a forest fire. When she told her husband, King Bh¯ımaratha, about the dream the next morning, he replied that she must have conceived a very virtuous child in her womb that night. Damayant¯ı was born with a miraculous birthmark in the middle of her forehead that showered forth light, and her parents treasured her. She displayed remarkable intelligence as a child, and became learned in Jainism and in the various arts. Furthermore, her virtue was such that a goddess even came to give her a golden statue of the future Jina S´a¯ntina¯tha21 to worship. When it came time for her to marry, her parents sent out an announcement to the surrounding kings and princes, inviting them to take part in the ritual assembly during which she would choose her husband. Many came, with their armies and chariots, and among them was Prince Nala. Damayant¯ı was introduced to each king and prince in turn, and when she was introduced to Nala she chose him to be her husband. As soon as she did so, however, another prince rose up in rage, determined to defeat Nala’s army in battle in order to take Damayant¯ı as his own

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wife. Damayant¯ı was horrified that such violence was about to take place for her sake, so she said a prayer and threw some water on the angry prince, extinguishing his anger and violent resolve. King Bh¯ımaratha celebrated Nala and Damayant¯ı’s wedding with great pomp, and he gave Prince Nala a substantial dowry of jewels, horses, elephants, and other various gifts. Afterward, the newlyweds departed to Nala’s kingdom and paid their respects to Nala’s parents upon their arrival. Damayant¯ı was very pleased that she would now live in a city with so many Jain temples, and the two became devoted to each other as husband and wife. Eventually, Nala’s father decided to renounce to become a Jain monk, and so he passed his crown to Nala and installed Nala’s brother (Ku¯bara) as the crown prince. Thereafter, King Nala protected the wellbeing of his people, and also expanded his kingdom to include half of India. There are some similarities and differences between this part of the story and what Jains do today. Just as Damayant¯ı’s father does in this story, the parents of Jain brides today also pay for lavish wedding celebrations and give substantial dowries to the groom and his family.22 However, unlike many Jain narratives in which a princess (such as Damayant¯ı) chooses a husband among an assembly of princes and kings, it is usually parents who decide whom their sons or daughters will marry; and depending on the family, those sons or daughters will have more or less influence over this decision. Indians use the phrase “love-marriage” to describe marriages in Western cultures (and in Westernized strands of Indian society) in which couples first fall in love and then make the choice to marry for themselves. However, Indians (including Jains) prefer arranged marriages in which couples hopefully fall in love after they are married. Indeed, there are many very happily married couples in India, including Jain couples, whose marriages were arranged. Jain parents are less likely to support a son’s choice to renounce because he brings a wife and her dowry to the family when he marries, and also because he lives at home after marriage to help with the family business.23 However, the converse is not necessarily true. Some Jain laymen24 and a few scholars25 have claimed that more unmarried women than men renounce because their families cannot afford their weddings and dowries. However, nuns do not

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usually come from poor families that cannot afford dowries.26 Furthermore, the majority of Jains (especially S´veta¯mbaras) are business owners, and so they are often wealthier than the general population and therefore able to afford dowries.27

Chastity: The story of Satī Damayantī (cont.) Female chastity is much more important than male chastity throughout India,28 including among Jains. Indeed, women’s chastity is a prominent part of India’s post-colonial nationalist discourse as an indicator of India’s moral superiority over the West after the “sexual-revolution.”29 Indians generally, and Jains specifically, have become increasingly interested in preserving this moral superiority of Indian women against the increasing influence of Western cultures. Even though adultery is proscribed for laymen, laymen’s transgressions are more likely to be overlooked and are less likely to damage the reputation and honor of their entire extended families. However, this is not the case for the indiscretions of unmarried girls and wives,30 because the honor and prestige of the entire family rests on the virtue and chastity of its female members.31 Regardless of sect or sub-sect, the traditional chastity of Jain women is still very important,32 and it is arguably the most prominent theme of most of the sat¯ı-narratives. The sat¯ıs in these narratives frequently defend themselves against men’s sexual advances or aggression in order to remain faithful to their husbands. The following excerpt from Damayant¯ı’s story describes how she rejects her brother-in-law and willingly experiences great hardship in order to remain faithful to her husband. Although a virtuous king, Nala also acquired the vice of gambling. His covetous younger brother, Ku¯bara, who had been scheming to gain the kingdom for himself, decided to use this weakness against Nala to attempt to win the kingdom for himself. They gambled while playing dice, and eventually the game turned in Ku¯bara’s favor. Nala kept gambling even though he was gradually losing more towns, property, and wealth. Damayant¯ı became alarmed and entreated her husband to stop,

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begging him not to lose the entire kingdom and his honor with it, but Nala would not stop. She went to the royal ministers for help, and they also tried to reason with him, but Nala still would not stop. Eventually Ku¯bara won Nala’s entire kingdom, his crown, and all his wives, including Damayant¯ı. When Ku¯bara exiled his brother from the kingdom and wanted Damayant¯ı to stay as his own wife, she insisted on going with Nala into exile instead. As a virtuous woman she would never consent to marrying another man, and the ministers also balked at Ku¯bara’s desire to keep her at the palace. They told Ku¯bara that Damayant¯ı’s faithfulness to Nala was such that she had the power to burn Ku¯bara to ashes if he tried to force himself on her. Ku¯bara was persuaded to give Nala and Damayant¯ı a chariot, and they started off through the forest to Damayant¯ı’s parents’ kingdom to seek refuge there. After they had traveled for some time a forest tribe attacked them, but Damayant¯ı’s powerful chastity enabled her to emit a terrible shout that drove the tribals away as they chased after them. However, Nala and Damayant¯ı returned to find that their chariot had been stolen, and so they were forced to proceed on foot. Eventually this was all too much for the already-disgraced Nala to endure. He could neither bear to see his wife experience such hardship, nor suffer the shame of seeking refuge from his father-in-law. While Damayant¯ı was sleeping, he wrote her a note telling her to return to her parents’ kingdom and then left her, knowing that his wife’s religiosity and chastity would protect her during the journey. Damayant¯ı awoke in the forest in great distress because she could not find Nala; but when she found the note, she obeyed her husband’s instructions and set off alone to her parents’ kingdom. Tigers and lions that stalked her for prey found they could not touch her. Poisonous serpents along the ground where she stepped found they could not bite her. Elephants running wild in rut found they could not go near her. A forest fire approaching her died out before it reached her. Demons, that usually attacked travelers in the forest, turned away when they saw her. Indeed, the pious Damayant¯ı was completely faithful to Nala in body, speech, and mind; she never even thought of another man. She thereby acquired great spiritual power that protected her from all forms danger.

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Although in no danger, she was nonetheless exhausted, alone, and walking on bleeding feet that had been cut by thorns; and so when she spotted a caravan traveling through the forest she was very relieved. As she approached it, however, a band of thieves attacked the caravan. She once again emitted her terrible shouts, terrifying because of the power of her chastity, to chase the thieves away and save the caravan. Those in the caravan bowed down gratefully to her, and they offered her their hospitality when they learned she was Queen Damayant¯ı. The sat¯ı-ideal links piety and chastity in a way that makes them inseparable. In narratives, and among Jains today, a woman’s chastity is the fulcrum of her religiosity and moral authority. A sat¯ı should marry once in her life, should never leave her husband or remarry no matter what the circumstances, and should obey her husband in most matters. She should also be a faithful moral and religious guide to her husband and family, and so she is not expected to be blindly obedient if it means sacrificing her religiosity or her family’s moral welfare.33 All of this is illustrated in a variety of ways in Sat¯ı Damayant¯ı’s narrative. First, Damayant¯ı insists on joining her husband in exile, instead of becoming Ku¯bara’s wife, because as a virtuous woman she should never leave her husband even if this means enduring hardship with him. She could have continued to live a life of ease in the palace as another man’s wife, but she chooses instead to suffer with Nala in exile. Second, she obeys her husband to proceed alone to her parents’ kingdom, even though she is in despair at being abandoned by him. Third, Damayant¯ı fulfills her duty to guide her husband away from the vice of gambling and to save him from the disgrace of losing his kingdom that way. In fact, she does everything within her power to persuade him to stop, because it is her moral duty to do so. She is unsuccessful because she does not have the practical authority to stop him in the patriarchal structure of the marital relationship; instead she only has the moral authority to try to persuade him to stop. This is all remarkably consistent with Jain laywomen’s roles within their families today. Although Jain laywomen have more or less influence in their families, depending on their regional culture, the sat¯ı-ideal is still adhered to today. The sat¯ı-ideal also means that a Jain woman should be a virgin before marriage, and should remain sexually faithful to her husband

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for the rest of her life in body, speech, and mind.34 She should not even be mentally unfaithful to her husband. This type of chastity is believed to produce spiritual power,35 including the power to protect oneself from danger.36 In sat¯ı-narratives, such as the story of Sat¯ı Damayant¯ı, this power results in the miraculous. First, Damayant¯ı is said to have the power to kill Ku¯bara if he attempts to force himself on her. Second, her powerful chastity protects her from a variety of dangers in the forest, even a forest fire. Third, Damayant¯ı also uses her powerful chastity to protect her husband from a tribe in the forest and to protect a caravan from a band of dangerous thieves. Contemporary Jain laywomen are also believed to gain some spiritual strength from their religiosity and chastity (albeit less powerful and less dramatic), and laywomen may use this spiritual power to benefit their husbands and families.37 Interestingly, Jain husbands in narratives almost never have such power, but these husbands often also have many wives, especially if they are princes or kings. Although Jain men could have more than one wife up until the nineteenth century,38 polygamy is illegal today. However, it is still acceptable for contemporary Jain laymen to remarry if their wives die or become nuns, whereas it is still very rare for Jain laywomen to do the same.39 The sexual restraint expected of laywomen was, and still is, greater than that expected of their husbands, and it is therefore somewhat closer to the chastity of renouncers. Narratives often include renouncers and faithful wives who have spiritual power because of their chastity and austerity. However, this is not the only way laywomen’s and renouncers’ religiosity is similar in narratives, as the next events in Sat¯ı Damayant¯ı’s story show.

Laywomen and renouncers: The story of Satī Damayantī (cont.) Most of the sat¯ı-narratives provide models of religiosity for both laywomen and nuns, and thereby demonstrate how the religiosity of laywomen and renouncers overlap. For example, laywomen are much more likely than laymen to choose to engage in religious practices that are expected of renouncers, including various fasts (tapa or upva¯sa) and meditation (sa¯ma¯yika).40 Furthermore,

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laywomen’s subordination to their husbands and in-laws requires tolerance and sacrifice, two spiritual virtues also required of renouncers. Many Jains, especially S´veta¯mbara Jains, believe these reasons account for the preponderance of Jain nuns over monks.41 Fasting is an especially important part of Jain laywomen’s and renouncers’ religiosity, and there are many different types of fasts that laywomen engage in.42 While renouncers fast primarily in order to purify their souls of karma (nirjara¯) so that they may eventually achieve moksa, laywomen fast in order to achieve both spiritual and ˙ Different fasts are believed to have different benefits worldly aims. for the faster and her family. For example, the Rohin¯ı fast preserves the life of the faster’s husband as well as helps the˙ faster develop equanimity; and is performed for seven years and seven months by fasting only on the seventh day of each month.43 The Navpad Ol¯ı fast results in marital happiness as well as wealth and health for the faster and her family, and is performed for four and a half years by eating bland food twice a year for nine days.44 Fasts also vary greatly in terms of their difficulty. For example, a laywoman may choose to fast without food for only three days, but she may also choose to attempt the most difficult fast and forgo food for an entire month under a doctor’s supervision.45 After laywomen complete difficult fasts, it is common for their husbands (or other male relatives) to celebrate by funding charitable projects, processions, feasts, and/or lavish religious ceremonies in their wives’ honor.46 The other part of laywomen’s asceticism, the tolerance and sacrifice required of Jain wives, differs significantly depending on sub-sect and region, as well as on urban or rural settings.47 For example, Rajasthani culture tends to be much more patriarchal and oppressive toward women than Gujarati culture. Whereas Rajasthani wives (including Jain wives) are mostly restricted to the home where their obedience and subordination is emphasized,48 Gujarati wives often have more freedom and also more authority in their homes.49 Therefore, some S´veta¯mbara Rajasthani nuns told me that they believe that there are more Jain nuns than monks because wives experience more hardship in marriage than men, with a few of these nuns from smaller towns even stating that wives are expected to be like “slaves” to their husbands and in-laws. There are also hardships in renunciation, some of these nuns explained, but these are beneficial hardships that result in spiritual progress and liberation from suffering.50 Likewise, many Jain narratives include characters

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who renounce because they have come to experience a detachment from, or revulsion to, the uncertainty and inevitable suffering of worldly life and rebirth in sam ˙ sa¯ra. Jains believe that everyone determines his or her own fate by good and bad actions in previous lives, but they usually do not know what their fate will be before it happens. Although there are many happily married Jain women,51 Damayant¯ı’s narrative highlights the possible hardships that women may experience in marriage if it is their karmic fate that their husbands will not fulfill their duties to protect and provide for their wives and families. Wives’ subordination within the husband’s family sometimes means that they lack the authority to stop a husband from ruining the family, just as Damayant¯ı lacks the authority to stop Nala from gambling. The faithfulness expected of wives sometimes means being faithful to a husband who causes a wife hardship or misery, just as Nala causes Damayant¯ı hardship by their exile to the forest. Finally, a wife’s dependence on her husband for safety and wellbeing means that one of the worst hardships for her would be to be abandoned by her husband, as Damayant¯ı is in this story, although this is extremely rare in contemporary life. Nonetheless, a wife’s religiosity gives her some control over her karmic fate and spiritual progress. Like many Jain laywomen today, Damayant¯ı fasts in response to her misfortune in the following part of the narrative. However, Damayant¯ı is also religious in other ways that are more relevant for monks and nuns, demonstrating how stories about married sat¯ıs provide ideal models of religiosity for both laywomen and renouncers. Damayant¯ı rested with the caravan for some time, while the rainy season began. However, she eventually decided to continue her journey alone. Once in the forest again she encountered a demon that threatened to kill and devour her. She fearlessly offered her life, saying that it would end her misery, and the demon was so impressed with her courage that he offered to help her. When Damayant¯ı asked about Nala, the demon answered that her husband would return in twelve years, and he also offered to take her to her father’s palace in the blink of an eye. However, Damayant¯ı declined his kind offer; a sat¯ı never goes anywhere alone with another man (or male demon). Instead, Damayant¯ı decided to retreat to a mountain cave, where she

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created an image of Jina S´a¯ntina¯tha to worship. And she also decided to practice austerities (tapas) until she could be reunited with her husband, undertaking periods of fasting, renouncing certain luxuries, and spending her days in meditation. In the meantime, the leader of the caravan noticed that Damayant¯ı was missing, went to search for her, and found her meditating in the cave. Some nearby ascetics heard them talking and also came to investigate, but a deluge of rain began and put them all in danger. Damayant¯ı told them not to be afraid. She dug a trench around them all and said, “If my chastity is pure, let the rain fall only outside this trench.” To their astonishment they were all protected from the torrential downfall, and so they asked her what she was doing in the cave and why she was not afraid. She then told them that her religious faith protected her from fear, and proceeded to teach them about Jainism. The caravan leader and the five hundred ascetics were so impressed that they adopted the Jain faith there on the spot. The leader of the caravan then had a city built there in her honor, and named it “The City of Ascetics” to also honor the ascetics she converted to Jainism. However, she remained in the cave and lived much like a nun for seven years, devoting herself to the Jain religion. One day Damayant¯ı heard someone outside the cave say that he had seen Nala. She ran out of the cave and into the forest in search of the source of this voice, but it was in vain. She found herself once again lost and alone in the forest where a female demon eventually found her and tried to devour Damayant¯ı. However, the demon found she could not because of Damayant¯ı’s powerful chastity. Although still safe from all danger, Damayant¯ı wandered in the forest and became very thirsty. She was so powerful, however, that when she came to a dry streambed she was able to make water miraculously flow in order to drink her fill. Eventually she came upon another caravan going to the city of Acalapura, and she accepted their offer to take her there with them. Acalapura happened to be the city where her maternal aunt lived as queen. When the queen’s servant girls saw Damayant¯ı at a city water tank, they went back and told the queen of her astonishing beauty. The queen decided to send for her, and Damayant¯ı explained that she was a merchant’s daughter and that her husband had abandoned her in the forest. Although she did not recognize her niece, the queen felt a strange affection for her and

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so let her live in the palace under her protection like an adopted daughter. Damayant¯ı decided to help the queen distribute charity at the almshouse, asking all who came for food if they had seen her husband. One day she saw some guards taking away a prisoner, bound in chains, to be put to death for the crime of theft. When Damayant¯ı asked what he had stolen, he confessed that he had stolen something from the queen and begged her for her protection. Damayant¯ı told him not be afraid and declared, “If I am a truly chaste woman, may this man be freed from his chains this instant.” His chains fell away and he fell at her feet in gratitude. This astonishing event was reported to the king, who asked her why she had interfered with his duty to enforce order in the kingdom. Damayant¯ı apologized and explained that she acted out of compassion to save a man from his death. The thief then told her that he had known her in The City of Ascetics, and that was why he asked for her protection. He confessed to her that his vices of gambling and thievery had caused him much misery, and Damayant¯ı convinced him to renounce his ways and become a Jain monk. In the meantime, Damayant¯ı’s parents had learned to their dismay that Nala had lost his throne, that he and their daughter had been sent into exile, and that no one seemed to know where they were. They had sent out one of their cleverest men to look for Damayant¯ı, and he finally happened upon her at the almshouse in Acalapura. Overjoyed about finally finding her, he rushed to court to inform the king and queen. The queen sent for Damayant¯ı and bathed her so that the birthmark on her forehead was visible. When this miraculous birthmark was shown with the light that Damayant¯ı was famous for, this proved that she was indeed her niece Damayant¯ı and the queen begged forgiveness for not recognizing her. That day, as Damayant¯ı explained to the king and queen all that had befallen her, night came but the court was still bathed in light. When the king expressed confusion, his wife explained about Damayant¯ı’s birthmark. The court descended into darkness when he covered it, and the light returned when he removed his hand. At that moment a god came to court and paid his respects to Damayant¯ı. He explained that he was the thief whom she had saved, that he had died as a Jain monk, and that he had been

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reborn as a god. He then expressed his gratitude to her by raining heaps of gold down onto the court. The king was so impressed with the fruits of practicing Jainism that he decided to become a Jain layman himself. Soon after, the king and queen sent Damayant¯ı back to her parents who welcomed her home with love and great relief. Many Jains say that there are more nuns than monks because women are more religious in general.52 Indeed, they are usually more religious than laymen in a variety of ways. More laywomen than laymen regularly visit temples and religious halls to listen to renouncers preach and/or to participate in rites of worship; more laywomen also undertake religious pilgrimages and follow food restrictions.53 There are a variety of reasons for this. First, while men are more likely to question Jain beliefs, women tend to give more credence to the Jain religion.54 Second, an entire family’s reputation within a Jain community depends on the religiosity and morality of the female members.55 Third, Jains believe that laywomen’s religiosity contributes to the worldly wellbeing of her family;56 for example, laymen often credit their wives’ religiosity with contributing to their financial success.57 Fourth, wives are expected to be more religious, to be the religious authorities in their families,58 and to teach Jainism to their children.59 Fifth, mothers teach their daughters to be more religious than their sons to prepare them for their marriage.60 Sixth, some Jains believe that women are more compassionate than men, and therefore naturally more non-violent.61 Jain women, whether they are wives or nuns, are often religious authorities and guides. The narrative of Damayant¯ı is interesting in that Damayant¯ı’s religious authority allows her to convert many non-Jain renouncers to the Jain religion. It is therefore more relevant as a model for nuns’ (and monks’) religiosity, than it is for laywomen’s religiosity. Indeed, Damayant¯ı is living much like a nun in this part of the story by renouncing luxuries, as well as fasting, remaining celibate, and meditating. Whereas laywomen usually restrict religious instruction to their families (especially to their children and grandchildren), renouncers preach to the larger community just as Damayant¯ı does to the leader of the caravan and the non-Jain ascetics in this part of the story. It is also commonly believed that someone who has a great deal of spiritual power (derived from his or her chastity and austerity) is much more

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influential when they teach and preach, just as Damayant¯ı is in this part of the story. Indeed, the sat¯ı-narratives often illustrate how virtuous women’s piety and chastity greatly influence others in ways that are positive, redeeming, and often converting. Not only is the king so impressed with Damayant¯ı that he converts to Jainism, Damayant¯ı is also able to save a thief from capital punishment as well as from spiritual and karmic ruin.

Chastity and celibacy: The story of Satī Damayantī (cont.) Jain narratives often follow characters on adventures that eventually lead to renunciation, and the sat¯ı-narratives are no exception to this. However, there is often a difference between laywomen becoming nuns and laymen becoming monks. This is because narratives often describe laywomen’s chastity (within marriage) culminating in celibacy (as nuns). Indeed, many of the sat¯ıs undergo periods of celibacy before they become nuns (as Damayant¯ı does in this part of the story), and both wives and renouncers are supposed to practice chastity in body, speech, and mind. When wives become nuns it is therefore a natural progression, or perfection, of the sexual restraint that they have already maintained as wives. There usually is not the same progression for laymen, who often have many wives in these narratives, because they usually do not practice the sexual restraint that their wives do before they become monks. Therefore, renunciation is sometimes a more difficult transition for them,62 as the excerpt below illustrates. In the meantime, Nala had found his way to a kingdom some distance away, where he was employed as the royal cook. He had impressed the local king by taming a mad elephant and by knowing how to cook using only the rays of the sun. However, he had the appearance of an ugly hunchback and so was unrecognizable as Nala. He had told the king that he was previously Nala’s cook, and that Nala had taught him how to cook by the rays of sun. However, the truth was that Nala had rescued a snake from a fire after he left Damayant¯ı in the forest. That snake had bitten him, transforming him into a hunchback with its poison, and then had revealed itself as a god. The god

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told Nala that he was his dead father, now reborn as a god, and that he had given Nala this ugly disguise so he would be protected from his enemies during his exile. He also gave Nala the means by which he could reverse this change in appearance when it was safe to do so. Damayant¯ı and her father eventually heard about this man who had the unusual abilities to cook with the sun as well as to tame mad elephants. They both suspected that this was Nala because he had these same rare skills. However, when they sent a man to investigate, he found only a hunchback. Damayant¯ı’s father decided to implement a ruse to see if the king’s cook was really Nala in disguise, knowing that his son-in-law had a third special skill, that of a master horseman. He sent out an invitation to the king to be part of an assembly in which Damayant¯ı would choose a new husband now that Nala was presumed dead, but he sent it so that only an expert horseman with Nala’s rare skill would be able to arrive in time for the event. Nala was distressed when he heard about the invitation; he could not believe that his faithful wife would marry another man. So he offered to drive the chariot to bring the king there on time, but only so that he could stop his wife. When they arrived Damayant¯ı was sure the hunchback was her beloved husband in disguise and cried with joy. Nala transformed himself back into his true appearance after learning about the ruse. Damayant¯ı and Nala were happily reunited after twelve long years of separation. Soon after this, Nala was able to win his kingdom and crown back from his brother in another game of dice, and he and Damayant¯ı lived happily together for a very long time. Eventually they both renounced to devote their lives to the Jain religion. However, Nala found that he was unable to successfully subdue his desire for Damayant¯ı, and so he decided to fast to death. Damayant¯ı, still devoted to him, also decided to fast to death with him. And so they ended their lives as a monk and a nun, and were reborn together as minor gods, destined to achieve moksa ˙ in a future life. There is a historically persistent belief among many Hindus63 and Buddhists (especially Tibetan/Himalayan Buddhists64) in South Asia today that women are more lascivious than men, and are

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therefore unsuitable for the celibacy required in renunciation.65 However, this is not the case in Jainism. Jains’ opinions about this differ, sometimes depending on sect, sub-sect, gacch, region, or individual opinion. However, they tend to range between the belief that men are more sexual than women (e.g. among the Tera¯panths, Stha¯nakva¯s¯ıs, and some Mu¯rtipu¯jaks) to the belief that men and women are equally sexual (among the Mu¯rtipu¯jaks Tapa¯ Gacch and Digambars),66 with the fewest Jains believing that women are more sexual than men. There are Jain narratives of, and scriptural references to, women as sexual temptresses, just as there are in Hinduism and Buddhism. For example, the S´veta¯mbara Su¯trakrta¯n˙ga (2. 4) accuses women ˙ Digambara A¯tma¯nus´a¯sana of deliberately tempting monks.67 The compares women to poisonous cobras who can “kill” even advanced monks.68 The S´veta¯mbara Sthavira¯val¯ıcaritra includes the narratives of the adulterous wife Gangila¯ (2. 314–354) and the adulterous Queen Lalita¯ (3. 214–275).69˙ The Digambara Yas´astilakacampu¯ (vs. 126–127), which is part of the larger Upa¯saka¯dhyayana, includes the story of how King Yas´odhara and his mother are poisoned by his wife when they discover her adultery.70 However, the numerous sat¯ı-narratives are more influential in determining how Jains tend to view women. Therefore, not only is renunciation a more honorable choice for Jain women than it is for Hindu and Buddhist women in South Asia, but many Jains believe that it is more difficult for men to practice the celibacy required by renunciation than it is for women.71 This is how it is for Nala and Damayant¯ı in their story; it is Nala (not Damayant¯ı) who has difficulty observing celibacy after they renounce. Furthermore, many Jains, especially S´veta¯mbara nuns, believe women’s greater ability to remain celibate explains why nuns outnumber monks.72 Celibacy is so important in Jain renunciation that one of the only times it is permissible for monks or nuns to commit suicide is if their celibacy is threatened. This is because sexual activity jettisons the fuel or power (s´aktí) needed to progress on the path to moksa, ˙ and even one instance of sexual activity can dissipate all the power that has been stored by celibacy up to that point. It is better to die with that storehouse of spiritual power rather than risk losing it. Nala therefore makes the decision to fast to death because he cannot control his sexual desire for Damayant¯ı, and his wife (always faithful to him, even as a nun) decides to do so as well. Fasting to

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death (sallekhana¯) is still an option for Jains today if they are no longer able to follow Jain precepts or practices for some reason such as illness or old age. However, while this is somewhat common in narratives, it is rarely done by Jains today.73

Conclusion The dominant theme of the sat¯ı-narratives is chastity;74 a woman cannot be a sat¯ı if she is not chaste. However, other common themes include piety, spiritual power, the tolerance of suffering (caused by one’s own actions in a previous life), the courage to stay steadfastly pious in adversity, and the influence to help others to reform their immoral ways or to adopt the Jain religion. The sat¯ıs in narratives are spiritual heroines who inspire Jain women today. For example, Whitney Kelting’s75 scholarship shows how S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jak Jain laywomen emulate and worship the sat¯ıs in many ways. She reports that laywomen emulate the sat¯ıs by participating in the particular types of fasts and temple worship associated with them. She also reports that laywomen praise and venerate the sat¯ıs in a variety of ways: by reciting their names during the ritual of repentance (pratikraman), by composing and singing hymns about them, by ˙ watching religious dramas about the them, and by creating and reciting the sat¯ı-narratives during celebrations, annual rites, and fasts. However, the sat¯ı-narratives also inspire nuns as well, and are partially responsible for the continued tradition of female renunciation in Jainism, as well as for the numerical preponderance of nuns over monks. Buddhism and Hinduism do not have similar narratives. Some textual records and narratives indicate that while female Hindu ascetics were never common, they were at least more common before the Brahmanical era (200 BCE to 400 CE) when marriage was made mandatory for girls and women.76 It was also at this time that Hindu narratives were composed in epics about paradigmatic faithful and obedient wives who have supernatural power,77 narratives that continue to be popular today. While both Jain and Hindu sat¯ı-narratives provide paradigms for women as faithful wives who often have supernatural power, only in Jainism does this paradigm also include renunciation. Textual and archeological evidence also indicates that orders of Buddhist nuns in India were relatively strong in early Buddhism,78 but slowly

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declined and almost completely disappeared in the eighth or ninth centuries CE.79 Falk80 has argued that the larger Hindu Brahmanical movement influenced the Theravada Buddhist scriptural and narrative tradition so that laywomen are much more lauded than nuns in these texts. However, Jain narratives celebrate and laud laywomen who become nuns. Unlike in Buddhism and Hinduism, there is both textual and archeological evidence of substantial numbers of Jain nuns throughout the tradition’s history.81 Not only are the sat¯ıs in Jain narratives spiritual heroines, they are spiritual heroines who almost always renounce. They thereby demonstrate the religious abilities of women, including the ability to make significant spiritual progress through renunciation. Monks and nuns venerate the sat¯ıs by lauding them, by presenting them as epitomes of religiosity and chastity to emulate, by reciting their narratives when they preach to the laity, and by writing inspirational books about them.82 Furthermore, monks and nuns may also venerate the sat¯ıs along with the Jinas, at the same time every day during the rite of repentance (pratikraman). ˙ Even the gods and the Jinas themselves are described as praising 83 and venerating the sat¯ıs in Jain texts. The influence of the sat¯ı-narratives cannot be overestimated, and this influence is not limited to laywomen and nuns. The following is part of an interview I conducted with an influential Mu¯rtipu¯jak Tapa¯ Gacch monk and a¯ca¯rya (head of an order of monks and nuns). When we started the interview, he first praised Jain nuns and then proceeded to answer my questions. “Are the stories about the sixteen sat¯ıs important for women?” I asked. “Definitely. They are inspired by them. The lives of these sat¯ıs provide a great deal of inspiration. [Inspiration] to not make the same mistakes that they made in their past lives. They received [karmic] punishment [for their mistakes]. After that, they had to tolerate so many hardships and protect their chastity. They preserved their virtue (pativrata¯). These are very inspirational and interesting stories; they inspire people. Therefore, they are very important; we give them high status here. We also, after becoming monks, recite their names every morning during pratikraman.” “Why do˙ you recite their names?”

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“We receive inspiration from them. After we recite the names of holy people, then that character, that holiness, also comes into us. It develops the qualities of our souls. Those qualities that we approve of and praise will live in the soul. These qualities will be encouraged [in us].” “What qualities did the sixteen sat¯ıs have?” I asked. “They had many qualities, because the soul has infinite qualities. They had many qualities among them. First of all, they had complete faith in [the Jinas], they completely protected their chastity, and they sacrificed a great deal to protect their purity in every way. They did a great deal through austerity, through mantra recitation, through worship, [and] through firm resolution. They therefore have special greatness.”84

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Exemplars for laymen: kings and gods The term s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra refers to the proper “conduct” (a¯ca¯ra) of a “layperson” or “layman” (s´ra¯vaka).1 Numerous Jain manuals have been written, mostly by monks, prescribing what a pious Jain layman should do,2 with earlier texts (such as the Upa¯sakadas´a¯h) composed by the fifth century CE, and the most recent manuals˙ still being written today.3 However, the text that proved to be most influential among S´veta¯mbara Jains was the monk Hemacandra’s Yogas´a¯stra (twelfth century CE).4 In it, Hemacandra lists the twelve vows of layperson, including the five anuvratas, the three gunavratas, and the ˙ strict versions four s´iksa¯vratas. The anuvratas (“lesser vows”) are less ˙ of renouncers’ Five Great Vows and include ahimsa¯ (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (not stealing), brahmacarya˙ (marital chastity), and aparigraha (non-attachment to, or limiting of, possessions). The gunavratas support non-violence by including restrictions on travel, on˙ use and consumption, and on activities. The s´iksa¯vratas include ˙ a¯s´ika (further sa¯ma¯yika (forty-eight minute meditation), des´a¯vak restrictions on movement), posadha (vow of temporary renunciation), and da¯na or atithisamvibha¯ga˙ (giving to and sheltering renouncers).5 ˙ While many Jain narratives describe laymen taking these vows,6 very few contemporary Jain laymen do so.7 Although laymen still adhere to the values these vows represent, this chapter focuses instead on only the most common ways laymen are religious today as well as the narrative exemplars that model this 75

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religiosity. There are also forms of religiosity common to both Jain laymen and women, but these are included in the next chapter. Although further research is needed to verify this, current scholarship indicates that the most common and influential narrative exemplars of contemporary laymen’s religiosity are kings and gods.8 There are also Jain narratives about exemplary rich businessmen, which do not seem to be as influential. For example, the S´veta¯mbara Upa¯sakadas´a¯h includes several stories about extremely rich merchants who accept˙ the lay vows and eventually renounce their wealth, but very few contemporary Jain businessmen choose to follow in their footsteps. Both narrative and non-narrative Jain texts, including the Upa¯sakadas´a¯h and many s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra manuals, advocate renunciation of the world ˙and its pleasures in order to achieve moksa, and the twelve lay vows are designed to be steps on the ladder of˙ increasing renunciation. However, it is very common for narrative texts to also describe the worldly benefits of practicing Jainism, including power, wealth, good fortune, virtuous sons and daughters, rebirth as a god, and even sometimes the enjoyment of sensual pleasures.9 Nonnarrative s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra texts often emphasize that a layperson should not desire worldly results from practicing Jainism in general, and religious giving specifically.10 Narratives, on the other hand, describe worldly rewards as acceptable motivations for practicing Jainism, while also describing how those with these motivations eventually shift their focus to achieving moksa instead. So while many non˙ 11 narrative texts describe worldly “wellbeing” and moksa in conflict, narrative texts instead describe them as a progression˙ from one to the other. Furthermore, scholarship indicates that many lay Jains also do not see them as conflicting,12 and so narrative texts reflect more accurately the lived experience of Jain laypeople today. However, Jain laymen in narrative texts are often royalty and so temporal power is more emphasized as a worldly benefit, while today most Jain laymen are merchants and businessmen13 and so wealth and business success are more important to them. While Jain renouncers attempt to purify their souls of all karmic matter to achieve moksa, laymen on the other hand generally ˙ attempt to minimize negative karma (pa¯pa) and maximize their accumulation of positive karma (punya). Just as is described in Jain ˙ that this punya results both narratives, laypeople generally believe ˙ circumstances in worldly success and wellbeing as well as in the necessary to achieve moksa in a future life. According to both ˙

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laypeople and narrative texts, punya itself ensures good fortune later in this life and in the next. ˙However Jain laymen are also motivated by the prestige their religiosity brings to them, and brings to their communities, which in turn also helps to ensure their business success.14 Laymen are supposed to be honest and non-violent in their business endeavors according to s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra manuals. However, it is da¯na or atithisamvibha¯ga (charity or gifting) that distinguishes a man ˙ as a maha¯s´ra¯vaka (“great layman”) according to Hemacandra’s 15 Yogas´a¯stra. Indeed, da¯na and another religious duty related to this, protecting Jain renouncers, are two of the most common ways Jain laymen are religious in Jain narratives and in contemporary Jain communities. Furthermore, the kings and gods in Jain narratives often provide the models for these types of religiosity. Both current research and my own experience with Jains in India indicate that these are the two most prevalent ways Jain laymen of all sects and sub-sects are religious, but the reader should bear in mind that only future research will be able to confirm this. Although there is a paucity of scholarship concerning Jainism in general, unfortunately there is even less written about contemporary laymen’s religiosity; and the scholarship that does exist mostly concerns only S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jak laymen.16

Dāna: Religious giving In contrast to the poverty of monks and nuns, Jain laypeople tend to be wealthier than other demographic groups in India, and so they are able to devote a tremendous amount of wealth to pious giving. S´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra texts state that a layman should have wealth that he has earned non-violently, honestly, and ethically.17 Furthermore, wealth is not just included in Hemacandra’s list of “The 35 Qualities of a Layman” in the Yogas´a¯stra,18 it is the first in this list as he begins by stating that a Jain layman is “(1) One who is legitimately endowed with wealth.” Hemacandra also states, Thus, one who is firm in [the twelve vows] and with devotion strews his wealth in the seven “fields”, including [images, temples, scriptures, male mendicants, female mendicants, laymen [and] laywomen], and one who out of compassion [strews his wealth on] the oppressed, [such a person] is said to be an exceptional layman.19

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Hemacandra not only enjoined charity to support the religion and co-religionists (the seven fields), but also compassionate charity to those in need. Charity is linked to both non-possession/nonattachment (aparigraha) and non-violence (ahimsa¯). While laymen are allowed to accumulate wealth, charity is˙ an expression of detachment from that wealth. Also, while ahimsa¯ means refraining ˙ feeling compassion from harming other living beings, it also means 20 for them. Most of the wealth donated by Jain laymen is not given to renouncers, who are allowed to accept only food and a few requisites.21 Instead it is spent on schools, libraries, health clinics, medical treatments and food for the poor, publishing and translating scriptures, sponsoring congregational pilgrimages, temporary residences for renouncers, animal shelters, religious festivals and fairs, and temples. Some Jain temples (such as those at Mt. Abu) are among the most exquisitely beautiful and ornate temples in all of India. Also, during the 1988 drought that afflicted the state of Gujarat in India, sixty percent of the relief agencies that helped people were run by Jains who constituted only one percent of the population of Gujarat.22 A layman not only earns punya and purifies pa¯pa for his ˙ 23 but also when he praises own good deeds such as religious giving, or celebrates (anumodan) the religious acts of others. Therefore there is also another type of religious giving that is prominent among Jain laymen: funding celebrations of the religious acts of others. Regardless of the type of religious giving, it is usually not done anonymously. Laymen’s goals not only include the accumulation of punya, but ˙ often include respect and high standing within Jain communities, 24 which laud and value philanthropy and generosity.

Religious giving: The story of Rāma, Laksmana, and Kapila ̇ ̇ There are both Hindu and Jain versions of the story of Ra¯ma and S¯ıta¯, versions that are quite similar in many ways. While the Hindu version is generally known as the Ra¯ma¯yana,25 Jains also know it as ˙ a¯na.26 In both the Jain the Ra¯makatha¯, Padmacarita, and Padmapur ˙ Ra¯ma, his devoted and Hindu versions of this narrative the prince wife S¯ıta¯, and his brother Laksman a are exiled to the forest for several ˙ various ˙ years, during which they have adventures. Eventually S¯ıta¯ is kidnapped by King Ra¯vana, because of the overwhelming lust he feels ˙

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toward her, but she remains steadfastly faithful to her husband Ra¯ma. Ra¯ma and Laksman a eventually defeat Ra¯van a in battle and rescue ˙ ˙ S¯ıta¯, and Ra¯ma˙regains his kingdom as its rightful king. There are, however, also many differences in the Hindu and Jain versions of this story. For example, Ra¯van a is a demon according to ˙ who has mastered special Hinduism, but he is a vidya¯dhara (a human powers) according to Jainism. Also, while in Hindu versions Ra¯ma is the human incarnation of the god Visn u, and S¯ıta¯ is the human ˙ ˙ sm¯ı, in Jain versions both incarnation of Visn u’s goddess-wife Lak ˙ ˙ ˙ Ra¯ma (also called Padma) and S¯ıta¯ are completely human and Jain laypersons. Furthermore, many of the specific adventures and subnarratives differ in Hinduism and Jainism. The following subnarrative is found in Jain versions27 and takes place after Ra¯ma, S¯ıta¯, and Laksman a are exiled to the forest and before S¯ıta¯ is kidnapped. ˙ ˙in the forest S¯ıta¯ became exhausted with thirst and One day asked her husband to find her some water, and so Ra¯ma took them to the nearby village of Arun a. There they found the house of a ˙ Hindu brahmin priest by the name of Kapila, where the priest’s wife provided them with water to quench their thirst. However, Kapila was a particularly ill-tempered and angry person, and when he saw them he started to hurl abuse at them for ruining the ritual purity of his house that was necessary to perform his vedic rites. Laksman a, ˙ but ˙ enraged by these insults, started to physically attack Kapila, Ra¯ma intervened by convincing his brother to desist, and the three left to find shelter in the forest under a banyan tree as the rainy season began. However, that banyan tree also happened to be the home of a yaksa (minor god) who now, finding himself homeless, sought help ˙ the king of yaksas by the name of Putana. Recognizing the from venerable Ra¯ma and ˙ Laksman a under the banyan tree, and also ˙ recognizing their need for˙ shelter during the rainy season, King Putana decided to help them. He created a city in the midst of the forest, and in this city he placed a luxurious palace for them made of gold, gems, and with many servants. Where there was nothing but trees before, there was suddenly the city of Ra¯mapur¯ı, where the three lived in comfort and surrounded by riches. There prince Ra¯ma devoted himself to acts of charity, making anyone who came to him for help rich themselves. One day while the priest Kapila was out in the forest, he happened on this miraculous new city. Kapila was completely confused, but a

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young female yaksa nearby informed him that it was the city of Ra¯mapur¯ı, where ˙Ra¯ma, S¯ıta¯, and Laksman a currently resided. She ˙ cult ˙ to get an audience with also told him that although it is very diffi Ra¯ma, because only devout Jains can gain entrance, Ra¯ma grants boons and bestows wealth on all those who succeed in doing so. After hearing this, and desiring the wealth that could be obtained from Ra¯ma, Kapila went to a Jain monk of the city and asked, “Please tell me what could be achieved by striving to give everything away in charity and by devoting oneself to the Jain religion?” The monk replied, Have you not seen that one who is a devout Jain layman acquires a large army with horses, elephants, and chariots? He enjoys pleasures, wealth, and fortunes, while the sinful experience illness, grief, poverty, and misfortune. By following Jainism a person becomes a king, while a sinner becomes a servant or a slave. By following Jainism a person is reborn in a high family or as a god, but the sinner is reborn into hell. By following Jainism one’s body is strong and healthy, while the sinner is lame, deaf, or blind. Everyone will receive just rewards or punishments for their good or bad deeds.28 After learning more about the Jain religion from this monk, Kapila was inspired to accept the lesser vows to become a Jain layman and went home to convert his wife as well. His wife also became convinced of the truth of the Jain religion, realized that she had been giving alms to ascetics who were unworthy, and said, Everything I have given to non-Jain ascetics has been wasted because they enjoy sensual pleasures, eat during the day and night as they please, have not taken vows, and are devoid of humility. Now I know that a monk who is worthy of receiving alms does not enjoy pleasures, is free from attachments, has no home, and is unconcerned with his body.29 Soon after this, Kapila returned to the city because he could now gain an audience with Ra¯ma as a Jain layman, but when he caught sight of Laksman a he started to flee in terror. After Ra¯ma and ˙ ˙ him that he was safe, he then approached and Laksman a reassured ˙ ˙ paid honor to Ra¯ma, apologizing for his previous behavior toward them at his house. When asked about his change of heart, Kapila

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replied, “O Lord, people always respect the wealthy. A poor man has no friends, but a wealthy person has friends and relatives. Wealth only stays with a man who practices the compassion and non-violence of Jainism faithfully.”30 Afterward, Ra¯ma bestowed on him great riches, which he took home to share with his wife. Although S´veta¯mbara versions of this narrative end here, according to the Digambara Padmapura¯na Kapila eventually decides to become a Jain monk later in that˙ lifetime. This narrative demonstrates a few key points about religious giving (da¯na). First, kings are most often the models of religious giving in Jain narratives, while sometimes gods are as well. For example, yaksas are a type of minor god, and the king of yaksas gives ˙ ˙ Ra¯ma Ra¯ma the magical city of Ra¯mapur¯ı during the rainy season. also provides a model for religious giving because he is essentially the king of this magical city of Ra¯mapur¯ı, and was supposed to be king of his city of origin before his exile. Second, as stated previously, Jain renouncers and laypeople constitute four of the seven “fields” of da¯na according to Hemacandra. Therefore, Kapila’s wife asserts that while Jain renouncers are worthy recipients of alms, non-Jain renouncers are not. Ra¯ma, as a Jain layman, is therefore also a worthy recipient of King Putana’s largesse. Furthermore, Kapila only becomes a worthy recipient of Ra¯ma’s generosity when he becomes a Jain layman. Third, this narrative demonstrates how wealth and worldly wellbeing are valued among Jain laypeople today, even though monks and nuns renounce them. The fact that Kapila is a Hindu brahmin priest in this story underscores this point because at the time this story was composed people sponsored brahmin priests to perform vedic rites to gain them specific or general worldly benefits such as wealth or power.31 Although Jain doctrine prescribes renunciation of wealth to achieve moksa, contemporary Jain laymen instead tend to pursue wealth. This˙ may seem to be paradoxical, contradictory, or even hypocritical to a non-Jain, but in reality it is none of these things. This is because laymen must have wealth in order to be properly religious by devoting substantial portions of this wealth to religious giving. A layman’s wealth not only allows him to be religious in his current lifetime through charity, and the punya acquired from his ˙ pious giving not only ensures his continued worldly prosperity in this life and future lives, this punya will also eventually result in his being able to become a renouncer˙ and achieve moksa later in a future life. ˙

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Celebrating the religious acts of others: The story of Mahāvīra’s renunciation We renouncers pull our hair out, travel by foot, do not eat anything at night, and do austerities for months at a time. If you cannot do these things, then you are still doing something that is religious by praising (anumodan) it when it is done. A S´veta¯mbara-Tera¯panth¯ı nun and scholar.32 Jains earn good karma (punya) by praising (anumodan) those ˙ one way to praise a religious act is who perform religious acts, and to fund a celebration of that act. This is almost the exclusive privilege of laymen because earning money for their families is one of their primary duties. However, Jains generally consider laywomen to be more religious than laymen in most other ways,33 and many more female members of various Jain communities choose to renounce than male members. Although Jain women perform the majority of religious acts, laymen support them in this and celebrate them for doing so. Such supportive actions are also considered religious. Only a small percentage of women renounce, but religiosity is also expected of laywomen in their familial roles as wives, mothers, and daughters. Their male relatives celebrate this religiosity with expensive feasts, religious donations, processions, and/or ceremonies, especially when they complete difficult religious fasts.34 Furthermore, someone’s initiation (d¯ıksa¯) as a Jain monk or ˙ for celebration, as nun is considered a very desirable opportunity this is one of the most highly regarded of all religious acts and therefore should be lauded as such. More often than not these are celebrations of a young woman’s initiation into nunhood, because fewer men renounce. However, regardless of whether it is a man or a woman who is renouncing, these celebrations are often lavish and very expensive.35 Many Jain narratives include descriptions of d¯ıksa¯ rituals and ˙ four Jinas. celebrations, especially narratives about the twentyWhile contemporary Jain renouncers focus on the simple d¯ıksa¯ rite ˙ of giving the newly initiated renouncer his or her vows, contemporary Jain laymen often fund expensive d¯ıksa¯ celebrations before the ˙ are inspired by narrative aspirant takes these vows, celebrations that descriptions. In these narratives it is kings and gods who celebrate each of the Jinas’ renunciations, thereby providing narrative models

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of anumodan for contemporary laymen’s religiosity. For example, the following is a description of kings and gods celebrating Maha¯v¯ıra’s renunciation. A year after prince Vardhama¯na’s (Maha¯v¯ıra’s) parents passed away and his brother had become king, the gods approached him and declared it was time to renounce in order to re-establish the Jain religion. After Vardhama¯na spent a year preparing for his renunciation by giving gifts to all who petitioned him, his brother (and other kings) as well as the gods celebrated his initiation ceremony. His brother ordered his men to create an enormous golden palanquin decorated with auspicious symbols and with a suitable throne for Vardhama¯na. However, Indra, the king of the gods had also created a palanquin that shone with equal splendor, and the second one was combined with the first. Vardhama¯na donned white garments and various ornaments, and then ascended the palanquin and sat on its throne. There, a beautiful goddess held an umbrella over his head, two other goddesses stood beside him with fly whisks, another stood near him with a silver vase, and still another had a palm leaf fan. The gods carried the palanquin to the garden where Vardhama¯na would renounce. There, Vardhama¯na descended from his throne, removed his ornaments, and renounced by pulling his hair out in five handfuls.36 One of the main events at contemporary d¯ıksa¯ celebrations funded ˙ by laymen is the procession that precedes the aspirant’s renunciation, often with the man or woman about to renounce throwing or distributing gold or coins to the onlookers.37 However, there are often many other events during these celebrations, and when a young woman renounces some of these events resemble wedding celebrations.38 Laidlaw (1995, 343) has described both this similarity of women’s initiation celebrations to wedding festivities among S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jak Jains, and also the wealth laymen spend on celebratory processions. In the days before the ceremony, there is a whole series of rites which exactly parallel marriage. Women gather for collective singing (sangeet) and for the initiand’s hands and feet to be decorated with henna (mehandi). Neighboring families invite

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the girl to their houses to eat. Just as before marriage, there are too many such invitations, so she spends just a little time at each house and eats just a little; and just as at marriage the visits are called bindauri. The day before the initiation, a ceremony called varshi dan (year gift) is held. This ceremony, which replaces the varghora procession before a wedding (in fact it is often casually referred to as varghora), is a procession in which the initiand rides through the town, usually on an elephant, throwing gifts into the crowd. It re-enacts the year in the life of the Tirthankar [Jina] in which, having decided to renounce the world, he travelled around his kingdom, giving away all of his vast riches [. . .]. As a nun once explained in a sermon, “when a tree is heavy with fruits, it bends so people can easily pick them. Mahavir gave dan every day for a year. Gold coins, from morning to evening – 10,800,000 gold coins. Also he gave horses, elephants, and beautiful jewels. Whatever people wanted would come into their hands.” Just how close modern ceremonies can come to this mythological archetype is illustrated by the diksha ceremony held in Ahmedabad in June 1991. Mr Atul Kumar Shah, a twenty-nine year-old bachelor and a diamond merchant based in Bombay, renounced his very considerable fortune to become a Tapa Gacch monk. According to newspaper reports of this event, Mr. Shah rode in a chariot in a procession of seven elephants, fifty horses, forty camels, and hundreds of dancers and acrobats, and threw handfuls of silver coins, diamonds, and pearls into the crowd. Satish Kumar, in his autobiography Path Without Destination, also recounts the lavish celebrations before his initiation as a Tera¯panth monk at the age of nine: There were dinner parties – at least one every day for the four weeks that were left till the end of the monsoon. Sometimes one hundred people would gather to eat with me. People gave me whatever I wanted to eat, to drink, to wear, to see. A white horse and horseman took me wherever I wanted go.39 At the end of the monsoon season the Jain community then processed him to his initiation with “fifteen horses, twenty camels, a band, singers and more than a thousand people.”40

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The protection and support of renouncers The Jain society takes care of us. The Jain society takes full responsibility for us. It is the entire Jain society’s responsibility to protect us. A S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jak (Tapa¯ Gacch) nun41 Not only do Jain laymen tend to place a great deal of importance on pious giving, they also tend to take their responsibility to protect and support renouncers very seriously.42 For example, Digambara munis sometimes encounter hostility from, and have occasionally even been attacked by, non-Jains because they do not wear any clothing, and so Digambara laymen take responsibility for protecting them.43 Laymen’s protectiveness in all sects and sub-sects is also motivated by the fact that many have relatives who have become monks or nuns. The majority of renouncers are nuns who, as women, are more vulnerable than monks. This encourages laypeople to be even more assiduous in their protection of renouncers to the extent that they often pay bodyguards to travel with them when they are itinerant,44 and also make sure to provide safe lodging while they stay temporarily in their communities. Providing food to renouncers is a duty that is usually assigned to laywomen (and to a lesser extent laymen), and so it is included in a different chapter (see Chapter Six).

The protection and support of renouncers: The story of King Nala’s past lives45 Jain narratives frequently follow characters through many lifetimes to illustrate how their actions in one life produce consequences in a next life, and they are replete with examples of how protecting and supporting Jain renouncers results in punya while the harming of ˙ of this is at the end of them results in pa¯pa. One narrative example the well-known story of King Nala and Queen Damayant¯ı (also known as Davadant¯ı). According to this long and involved story, Nala was a good king who was married to the virtuous queen Damayant¯ı, but who also suffered from a gambling problem. Coveting Nala’s kingship, his brother Ku¯bara used this weakness against him by gambling him out of his kingdom. During Nala and

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Damayant¯ı’s twelve years of exile from their kingdom, they became separated, and had various adventures too numerous to recount here. However, they were eventually reunited and Nala finally regained his kingdom. The following part of this narrative takes place after they regained their previous fortune and decided to ask the great monk Jinabhadra to explain what actions in their past lives resulted in their sovereignty in their current life, losing that sovereignty, and then regaining it again. Jinabhadra, because of his supernatural knowledge, was able to explain by telling them about their past lives: In one of your previous lives you were the King Mammana and Damayant¯ı was your wife, the Queen V¯ıramat¯ı. When˙ King Mammana was out hunting one day he spotted a Jain monk traveling ˙with a trading caravan. Assuming the monk’s presence would ruin his luck in the hunt, he took the monk back to his palace; there the pious monk was angrily mocked for twelve hours. When King Mammana and his wife finally learned from ˙ on his way to worship at Mt. the monk that he had been Asta¯pada, they had a change of heart. They proceeded to provide ˙ ˙ monk with food and shelter so that they could have time to the learn about Jainism from him before sending him on his way. They followed the Jain lay vows thereafter and were reborn as a god and goddess in one of the heavens, and then again reborn as a cowherd’s son Dhanya and his wife Dhu¯sar¯ı. One rainy day while Dhanya was taking his bullocks out to the forest pasture, he saw an emaciated monk standing in motionless meditation while the rain poured down on him. Dhanya venerated the monk and protected him from the rain with his umbrella until the weather cleared. After learning from the monk that he had been caught in the rain for the week, and therefore had been unable to continue his travels, Dhanya offered him a bullock to ride in order to bring him to his house. The monk declined Dhanya’s kind offer, explaining that monks are not allowed to ride on any animal, and instead walked with him to his house. There, Dhanya and Dhu¯sar¯ı gave the monk milk, in order to break his fast, and they took the lay vows. After Dhanya and Dhu¯sar¯ı died they were reborn as devout twins, then reborn again as a god and goddess in one of the heavens, and then finally reborn as you both, Nala and Damayant¯ı.

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After recounting Nala and Damayant¯ı’s past lives, the great monk Jinabhadra explained that the punya from their care of those two monks in their past lives resulted in˙ being reborn as a king and queen, but the pa¯pa from their mistreatment of that first monk for twelve hours, when they separated him from the caravan, resulted in their losing their kingdom for twelve years. After hearing this explanation from Jinabhadra, Nala was seized with the desire to renounce worldly life. He handed his kingdom over to his son, and Nala and Damayant¯ı renounced to become a Jain monk and nun. Although Nala tried his best to follow the rules of renunciation, he was still plagued with desire for Damayant¯ı, and so he decided to fast until death rather than violate his vows. Damayant¯ı, who had always been devoted to Nala, died alongside him and they were reborn as a minor god and goddess, destined to achieve moksa in a future life.46 Narratives˙ about protecting and providing for renouncers frequently illustrate how the punya one earns from such acts is directly proportionate with the ˙worthiness of the recipient and sincere devotion behind those acts.47 The more worthy the recipient and more sincere the giver, the greater the rewards are later in this life or in a next rebirth. This is the reason that Nala and Damayant¯ı’s modest provisions for monks for relatively short periods of time resulted in their rebirth as a king and queen. The converse is also true for acts of mistreatment. The more virtuous the recipient of such mistreatment, the greater and more long-lasting the suffering will be for the one who has committed this mistreatment. Only twelve hours of mistreating a monk resulted in twelve years of suffering for Nala and Damayant¯ı.

Conclusion Various s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra manuals advocate prabha¯vana¯, which is any action that spreads the Jain religion or increases its reputation.48 Laymen today often do this by funding the publication and translation of Jain scriptures, by funding the construction and repair of temples, by funding d¯ıksa¯ celebrations and celebrations of other religious acts, ˙ by funding religious festivals, as well as through various other types of religious giving (da¯na). They also do this by protecting and supporting Jain renouncers as they travel across India, preaching to

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the laypeople of different locales. By doing so they are not only increasing their punya and their reputations within their communities, they are also benefi˙ ting Jainism through prabha¯vana¯. Jain laymen’s religiosity sometimes differs in other ways depending on their sect or sub-sect. For example, narrative descriptions of the gods bathing newly born Jinas provide the model for the S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jak laymen’s ritual of bathing images of the Jinas.49 However, the S´veta¯mbara-Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı and Tera¯panth, and Digambara Ta¯ranpanth do not use images in worship and so this form of worship ˙ is not a part of laymen’s religiosity in these communities. Jain laymen’s religiosity also varies from person to person. Wealth is only the first in Hemacandra’s list of “The 35 Qualities of a Layman” in the Yogas´a¯stra and, depending on the piety of the layman, he may more or less adhere to the values and ethics in the complete list below. (1) One who is legitimately endowed with wealth, (2) who puts in action the conduct of a gentleman, (3) who is married to [a person] from a family of the same moral conduct [as his own], but from another lineage (gotra), (4) who is afraid of evil, (5) who practices the well established conduct of the country, (6) who never criticizes [others], especially not kings, (7) whose residence is neither too exposed nor too hidden, located in a good neighborhood, and free from too many front doors,50 (8) who is in the company with [those] of virtuous conduct, (9) who honours his parents, (10) who avoids overpopulated places, (11) who does not get involved in anything reproachable, (12) who makes sure that his expenditure accords with his income, (13) who assumes a dress according to [his] wealth,51 (14) who is endowed with the eight qualities of intelligence,52 (15) who listens to religious preaching daily, (16) who does not eat when [he is] not hungry,53 (17) and [who eats] with mindfulness at [an appropriate] time, (18) who cultivates the three groups [of human objectives (purusa¯rtha): dharma, a¯rtha and ka¯ma],54 ˙ mutual conflict,55 (19) who treats a without them coming into guest, a holy man and a poor man respectfully, [according to their status], (20) who, on the one hand, is always impartial, and, on the other, (21) is partial with respect to [the good] qualities [within a man], (22) who avoids improper behavior with regard

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to time and place, (23) who knows his strength and weaknesses, (24) who respects virtuous and learned persons, (25) who supports those who deserve to be supported,56 (26) who is farsighted, (27) discriminative,57 (28) grateful, (29) loved by people, (30) modest, (31) compassionate, (32) gentle, (33) [and] intent on doing good to others, (34) who is devoted to removing the group of six internal enemies of the body [such as lust and anger],58 (35) and who has reduced to subjection his (lit. the collection of) senses, [such] a householder [endowed with these 35 qualities] fulfils [his] duty (dharma).59 Finally, Jain laymen’s religiosity is also influenced by narratives that provide anti-ideals. While this chapter includes ideal models in narratives for laymen’s religiosity, there are also influential antimodels (or anti-ideals) in narratives that illustrate the karmic consequences for the incorrect behavior of a layman. King Ra¯vana ˙ is an example of a narrative anti-model of brahmacarya (chastity) ´ in both Sveta¯mbara and Digambara versions of the Ra¯ma¯yana. Jain ˙ King laymen should not desire or pursue another man’s wife,60 but Ra¯vana goes to the extreme of kidnapping Ra¯ma’s wife S¯ıta¯, even ˙ his advisors repeatedly tell him that this is improper and though that it may lead to his downfall. He is intractably driven by his lust, however, and in the end this kidnapping not only leads to his defeat and death in battle, but also to his rebirth in hell.

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Conclusion: Festivals, prayer, and worship Narratives are important for understanding the different ways Jains are religious today. Sometimes narratives provide divergent models of religiosity considered appropriate for renouncers, laywomen, or laymen. However, there are types of religiosity that entire Jain communities take part in, although renouncers and laypeople may take part in different ways. There are also types of religiosity that are shared by both laymen and laywomen. Some of the most common ways this is true in all sects and sub-sects include religious festivals, prayers or mantras, and the veneration of renouncers. However, devotional worship using images is also an important type of religiosity for Digambara laypeople (except in the DigambaraTa¯ranpanth sub-sect) and S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jak laypeople. ˙

Religious festivals Religious festivals are an important part of lay-religiosity in particular, but all the members of various Jain communities take part in these festivals in different ways. For example, laymen sponsor these celebrations and bid1 against each other to win the

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right to perform specific rituals as part of their practice of pious giving (da¯na). Laywomen sing devotional songs.2 Monks and nuns serve as honored guests, officiate, and/or preach during festivals.3 Maha¯v¯ıra-Jayant¯ı (April) and Aksaya-Trt¯ıya¯ (April–May) are two important annual Jain festivals˙ that˙ are common to both S´veta¯mbaras and Digambaras, but Digambaras also celebrate Ba¯hubali-Mastaka-Abhiseka (February) every 12 years.4 Like all ˙ other forms of Jain religiosity, festivals are also connected to religious narratives. These stories are frequently told, recited from scripture, sung, and/or dramatized in plays during these festivals.

Mahāvīra-Jayantī and the story of Jina Mahāvīra’s birth Maha¯v¯ıra-Jayant¯ı celebrates the conception and birth of the twentyfourth Jina, Jina Maha¯v¯ıra. According to the various scriptural hagiographies of Maha¯v¯ıra, his parents were minor royalty of the warrior caste. Like all the previous mothers of the Jinas, Maha¯v¯ıra’s mother Tris´ala¯ had fourteen (according to S´veta¯mbaras) or sixteen (according to Digambaras) auspicious dreams upon his conception. When Maha¯v¯ıra refrained from moving while in the womb (so as not to cause his mother any discomfort or pain) Tris´ala¯ became alarmed that her child might be dead, and so he moved to let her know this was not the case. Jain rituals to celebrate Maha¯v¯ıra’s birth are modeled after narrative descriptions of how the gods celebrated Maha¯v¯ıra’s (and every previous Jina’s) birth. For example, narratives describe how Indra (king of the gods) and Indra¯n¯ı (his wife) took Maha¯v¯ıra to Mount Meru to worship him with a ˙ritual bath, and often a Jain couple (representing Indra and Indra¯n¯ı) ritually re-enact this event. ˙

Aksaya-Tr tīyā and the story of ˙ and Prince Śreyāmsa Jina ˙Rsabha ˙˙ ˙ The festival of Aksaya-Trt¯ıya¯ celebrates the first alms-giving of the ˙ current time cycle ˙according to the story of Jina Rsabha and Prince ˙ ˙ about how the ´Sreya¯msa.5 There are many versions of the narrative ˙ first Jina, Jina Rsabha, finally broke his year-long (or six-month) fast.6 The reason˙ ˙he did not eat for so long was that people did not

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yet know the right way to give proper food to monks. Instead they offered unsuitable food, wealth, and other items that Rsabha had ˙˙ renounced and therefore refused to accept. However, Prince ´Sreya¯msa then remembered from his previous life what alms should ˙ be given, and how they should be given, and so offered Rsabha ˙ ˙ his sugarcane juice in the proper way so that he could finally break fast. Devout Jain laypeople (more laywomen than laymen) re-enact Rsabha’s fast in modified form by fasting every other day for six ˙˙ months to a year. On the day of Aksaya-Trt¯ıya¯ members of the lay ˙ ˙ juice to break their fast, community hand-feed the fasters sugarcane 7 to honor them, and to earn good karma through this act of anumodan (praising the religious acts of others).

Bāhubali-Mastaka-Abhiseka and ˙ the story of Bāhubali Digambaras celebrate Ba¯hubali-Mastaka-Abhiseka every twelve ˙ years (in February) at S´ravana Belgola in the state of Karnataka. ˙ ˙ ˙ The main event of this celebration is the anointing (abhiseka) of a ˙ seventy-five foot statue of Ba¯hubali standing upright in meditation. Although this is a Digambara ritual, the story of Ba¯hubali is influential among both Digambaras and S´veta¯mbaras, and its main themes concern the dangers of anger and pride.8 This narrative is about two brothers, Bharata and Ba¯hubali, who were both sons of the first Jina of the current time cycle, Jina Rsabha. ˙˙ Bharata was the first cakravartin (universal emperor), but he had ninety-nine brothers who were also made kings by his father. Ba¯hubali was the proudest, cleverest, most intelligent, and the youngest of all of them. Angry that his brothers had not yet submitted to him, but knowing that Ba¯hubali would be the most difficult to dominate, Bharata decided to leave him alone at first while he attempted to subjugate the rest of his brothers within his empire. However, they chose neither to fight Bharata nor to submit to him, but instead went to their father and renounced to become Jain monks. Bharata then sent an emissary to Ba¯hubali demanding submission, but Ba¯hubali rebuked him and sent back a challenge to battle. Ba¯hubali’s rebuke is quite long in the Digambara

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A¯ dipura¯na, and includes the following statement about Bharata’s ˙ display of force, the proclaiming of one’s own virtues, pride: “The and the highlighting of others’ faults characterize the conduct of a scoundrel. A malicious person willingly points out his own virtues and others’ faults, and covers up his own faults and even others’ virtues.”9 Bharata’s army eventually arrived on the outskirts of Ba¯hubali’s kingdom. When their respective ministers and councilors met to discuss what would proceed, they realized that the loss of life would be great because both armies were so well matched, and so they proposed an alternative to the two brothers. They asked kings Bharata and Ba¯hubali to engage in contests of strength with each other instead of leading their armies into a battle in which so many men would surely die, and the brothers agreed. One part of the contest was a wrestling match, during which Ba¯hubali proceeded to humiliate his brother by lifting him over his head. Aloft over his brother’s head, and filled with rage about being shamed in this way, Bharata called upon his supernatural discus-weapon. This was the discus he had used in all his conquests in battle, and he called upon it now to defeat his brother. The discus flew to them, but it circumnavigated Ba¯hubali and came to rest before him. By calling on the discus, Bharata had shamed himself by attempting to cheat in order to win. At first Ba¯hubali was proud of defeating his brother, but then began to reflect on how useless the combat was. What use was it to strive to gain a kingdom and material pleasures, when these things are temporary? And what shameful acts people like his brother commit in pursuit of them! He approached his brother and apologized for his part in their feud and for his lack of humility. He suggested that they both become monks, and in doing so renounce the folly of chasing after material gains and sovereignty. Bharata also apologized for his transgression, and offered to transfer his own kingdoms to Ba¯hubali. However, Ba¯hubali declined this offer and became a monk of great austerities (tapas), fasting and standing in one position for a year so that vines grew up his legs and body. His austerity was so great that he succeeded in destroying most of the karma that obscured his soul, and gained great supernatural power. This peaceful spiritual power that emanated from him healed the physical ailments of those who came near him, drew animals

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(normally enemies) to rest in worship and non-violence at his feet, and attracted the worship of both vidya¯dharas (men with supernatural powers) and gods. Bharata went to Ba¯hubali twice to venerate and worship him: once right before the latter’s kevala and once afterwards. The first time Bharata worshipped him, Ba¯hubali was finally freed from the guilt of causing his older brother pain, and so his brother’s veneration enabled him to finally achieve kevala. It was not until some time later that Bharata also renounced to achieve kevala as well. The above summary of Ba¯hubali’s story is from the Digambara A¯dipura¯na. However, there are some differences in the S´veta¯mbara Trisastis´˙ala¯ka¯purusacaritra. For example, it was the gods (instead of ˙ ˙˙ ˙ ministers) who intervened before the war to ask Bharata and Ba¯hubali to agree to a personal contest, Ba¯hubali threw Bharata up into the air (instead of raising him above his head), it is Ba¯hubali’s younger (not older) brothers who renounced before he did, and it is Ba¯hubali’s two sisters (also nuns) Bra¯hm¯ı and Sundar¯ı (not Bharata) who were instrumental in his finally achieving kevala. There is also more emphasis, in this S´veta¯mbara version of the story, on Ba¯hubali’s pride as obstacle to spiritual progress. In his pride, Ba¯hubali decided not to visit his father and brothers (who had already renounced) until after he had achieved kevala, because if he went beforehand he would have to bow down to his younger brothers as senior monks. After Ba¯hubali completed a year of fasting in a standing position so that he was covered with creepers, his father (Jina Rsabha) sent Bra¯hm¯ı and Sundar¯ı to him ˙˙ with a message: “one cannot achieve kevala while sitting on an elephant’s shoulder.” At this, Ba¯hubali finally understood that his pride (about not bowing down to his younger brothers) was keeping him from achieving his goal, and as he started off to go and pay his respects to them he immediately achieved kevala.

The Namaskāra Mantra The most important Jain prayer or mantra in all sects and sub-sects is the Namaska¯ra Mantra, also called the Pañcanamaska¯ra Mantra, the Noka¯r Mantra, or the Namoka¯r Mantra. This mantra venerates those deemed worthy of worship by listing their general categories.10

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Praise to the Arhats [Jinas] Praise to the Siddhas [perfected/liberated souls] Praise to the A¯ca¯ryas [leaders of renouncers] Praise to the Upa¯dhya¯yas [renouncer-teachers] Praise to all the renouncers in the world. This five-fold praise Destroys all bad karma And of all the holies It is the foremost of holy.11 Jain narratives include people reciting this mantra for various reasons, such as to achieve moksa, for protection from danger, to help someone at death to have ˙a good rebirth,12 to heal physical ailments, to be reborn as a god or a king, and to purify bad karma. Whether they are renouncers or laypeople, Jains frequently say this mantra today for similar reasons.

The Namaskāra Mantra: the story of the dog who is reborn as a god There is a sub-genre of Jain narratives about the Namaska¯ra Mantra’s power to help humans or animals achieve good rebirths. Often in these narratives someone recites the mantra to them at the time of their death, often they are reborn as gods as a result, and often they come to the aid of the person who recited the mantra to them after they are reborn as a god. The following story, about a dog that is reborn as a god (yaksa), is summarized from the Tamil Digambara epic known as the C¯ı˙vakacinta¯mani by Tiruttakkatêvar ˙ (c. ninth century CE).13 One day a dog came upon some rice that had been cooked for some Hindu brahmin priests and ate it. When the brahmins chased after the dog and beat it with clubs and stones, the dog jumped into a bathing tank to escape. There a drunkard and his two wives were in the process of becoming inebriated, and the drunkard started to abuse and threaten the brahmins for beating the dog. However, when C¯ıvakan¯ (the hero of C¯ıvakacinta¯mani) ˙ heard all this angry commotion he dispersed the angry brahmins, calmed the drunkard, and took pity on the dying dog. He told

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the dog to listen to the Namaska¯ra Mantra which he was about to recite. He [C¯ıvakan¯] said, “Get rid of the rancor in your mind and think, consciously, on the five mantras and you will leave the black karma you are possessed of and a happiness which will never leave will be produced always, every day.” Drinking in that ambrosia of the five utterances with its heart it left behind its dog’s body. (Verse 947)14 The dog then found himself reborn as Cutañcanan¯, a king among ˙ the gods, surrounded by wealth and beautiful goddesses. His “black karma,” that caused him to be reborn as a dog, had been purified by the Namaska¯ra Mantra, and in gratitude he went to C¯ıvakan¯. C¯ıvakan¯ recognized him as a god because he did not blink and he had no shadow, but did not recognize him as the dog to which he had recited the Namaska¯ra Mantra, and so asked who he was. Cutañcanan¯ answered, thanked C¯ıvakan¯ for helping him to have a ˙ good rebirth, and offered to make him a great king. However, C¯ıvakan¯ declined his generous offer, and asked him instead to come to his aid in battle if he ever needed it. Cutañcanan¯ gladly agreed ˙ saying, Like your shadow, I will not leave you. If trouble should befall you, think of me. (Verse 959)15 Many Jains today believe that whatever is in one’s mind at the moment of death greatly influences one’s next rebirth. Reciting the Namaska¯ra Mantra to someone when they are dying is therefore also still common practice. The power of the Namaska¯ra Mantra in that regard is especially emphasized in this story because a dog is reborn as a god. In traditional Brahmanical Hindu culture dogs were considered very low and impure animals, and so rebirth as a dog was considered the result of significant sins in a past life. On the other hand, brahmin priests enjoyed a place at the top of the Hindu caste system, and so rebirth as a brahmin was considered the

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result of virtue and good deeds in a past life. Brahmin priests also needed to maintain their ritual purity by avoiding contact with the contaminating impurity of people in lower castes as well as dogs. However, in this story the brahmins’ supposed virtue is betrayed by their violence and lack of compassion, and a dog is redeemed because of the power of this mantra.

The Namaskāra Mantra: The story of Damayantī 16 The Namaska¯ra Mantra is often recited in Jain narratives for protection. Examples of this are contained in the narrative of King Nala and Queen Damayant¯ı (also called Davadant¯ı) (see also Chapters Four and Five). In this story Nala was a good king, but had a weakness for gambling, and so his brother Ku¯bara was able to gamble Nala out of his kingdom and exile him from it. Queen Damayant¯ı, his faithful and pious wife, decided to accompany Nala in his exile. After their chariot was stolen, they found themselves traveling through the forest on foot. However, Nala found he could not live with the guilt of watching Damayant¯ı suffer with him in their exile, and also decided he could not endure the shame of going to his father-in-law for refuge. So one night in the middle of the forest he left her, leaving her a note telling her to return to her family. He knew that Damayant¯ı’s spiritual power, resulting from her piety and chastity, would protect her from danger along the way. Although they were eventually reunited and Nala regained his kingdom, Damayant¯ı’s adventures alone in the forest make her seem much more heroic than Nala throughout the story. Her powerful chastity did indeed protect her, but she also used the Namaska¯ra Mantra from time to time for protection as well. For example, while Damayant¯ı was listening to a Jain monk preach in the forest one day, a god came and bowed to the monk and then greeted Damayant¯ı as well. He told her that in a previous birth he had been a cobra in the forest who was about to bite her, but when she recited the Namaska¯ra Mantra he left her alone. Later, after a caravan brought her to the city of Acalapura, Damayant¯ı went into the city’s water tank to drink. There an iguana seized her left foot and would not let go until she repeated the Namaska¯ra Mantra. Like almost all Jain practices aimed primarily at achieving spiritual progress, the Namaska¯ra Mantra also has worldly benefits

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in narratives, including rebirth as a god and protection from danger. It destroys the bad karma (pa¯pa) that results in misfortune, and produces the good karma (punya) that brings the good fortune that will eventually be renounced˙ to achieve moksa. Jains believe that the Namaska¯ra Mantra has spiritual power in˙ and of itself, and so anyone may benefit by reciting it. But it is also commonly believed that when someone with religious virtue and spiritual power (such as Damayant¯ı) recites the Namaska¯ra or other mantras, these mantras have even more power. Jains often recount modern-day instances of this. For example, I was told that one Digambara nun was able to heal a disciple’s scorpion bite this way.17

Worshipping and venerating renouncers As stated in Chapter Three, the veneration of renouncers is connected to the veneration of the Jinas, because renouncers are following in their footsteps to achieve moksa. However, the ˙ veneration of nuns is also connected with the veneration of sat¯ıs (“virtuous women”) as well. Jinas, sat¯ıs, and renouncers are considered worthy of worship because of their virtues or spiritual “qualities” (gunas), and Jains worship them in order to develop ˙ themselves and also to earn punya. those qualities in ˙ In most South Asian traditions female renouncers are much less respected and supported than male renouncers.18 However, Jain laypeople respect and support both monks and nuns, although monks are usually still accorded higher status. As Babb (1996, 23) states, “This is a fundamental matter: Jains worship ascetics, and this is the most important fact about Jain ritual culture.”19 Laypeople’s “worship” of monks and nuns includes standardized rites of worship, as well as devotion, veneration, protection, and support.20 This is so important that Jain laymen compete to have monks and nuns spend the four-month rainy season in their villages or neighborhoods, and annually publish and distribute information about where renouncers plan to spend the current year’s rainy season.21 Those locations become pilgrimage destinations for laypeople, who travel to visit with them individually and also to listen to them preach; and this pilgrimage of laypeople is intensified if a new monk or nun is being initiated into the order (d¯ıksa¯).22 ˙ When renouncers are required to travel, laypeople organize

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processions of veneration when they arrive or leave their areas.23 Laypeople also worship renouncers every time they meet with them by bowing down to them (guru-vandana). Jain narratives often include instances of laymen and laywomen worshipping and venerating renouncers in various ways, including guru-vandana and giving alms.

Guru-vandana and giving alms Guru-vandana is the ritual veneration of renouncers, which is often done by formally moving joined hands in a circle and bowing down three times, touching one’s head to the floor or to renouncers’ feet.24 There is also a less formal type of guru-vandana that is done by bending down to touch renouncers’ feet between one and a few times. Junior renouncers venerate senior renouncers in these ways (with seniority being determined by date of initiation), and laypeople do so to all renouncers. However, one of the significant differences concerning how Digambaras and S´veta¯mbaras do this concerns their differing approaches to this rite in relation to renouncers’ celibacy. While no one is allowed to touch physically someone of the opposite gender during this rite among S´veta¯mbaras, it is allowed in a restricted way among Digambaras.25 In Western cultures this type of behavior is usually considered inappropriately humiliating and servile, because (at least theoretically) all people are considered equal regardless of age, gender, wealth, or position. This is not the case in India where all social interactions take place in the context of hierarchies based on age, gender, caste, wealth, and religious status. It is common practice in India to touch the feet of a respected elder or teacher to show respect and love, and in return that person expresses their love and/ or blessings by placing their hand(s) on the other’s head or shoulders. However, this has even more significance when it is done toward renouncers because Jains believe monks’ and nuns’ celibacy (brahmacarya) and austerities (tapas) give them spiritual power (s´akti) that they share with laypeople during the rite of guruvandana.26 Therefore, this Jain rite is not just a way to venerate renouncers or to gain punya, it is also a way to gain both spiritual ˙ this transfer of s´akti.28 This transfer and worldly27 benefits from primarily occurs when touching renouncers’ feet, but it also occurs

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in other ways. For example, s´akti is transferred among Digambaras when renouncers touch devotees with their peacock feather broom during this rite. Laypeople often perform the rite of guru-vandana when they provide food to renouncers.29 Although giving food to renouncers falls mainly under the purview of laywomen’s religiosity, laymen also take part as well. For example, although laywomen cook the food that renouncers eat, everyone present in S´veta¯mbara households at the time renouncers come for food takes a turn placing this food in renouncers’ bowls. This is so that each of them may karmically benefit from the ritual of giving. While S´veta¯mbara laypeople perform a simple rite of veneration at this time, Digambara laypeople perform a more elaborate ritual of worship during which they circumambulate the renouncer three times, wash the renouncer’s feet, and worship the renouncer with same ritual used in temples to worship images of the Jinas.30 This ritual is called the “The Rite of Eight Substances” during which laypeople offer water, sandalwood, uncooked rice, flowers, a cooked fritter, light from an oil lamp, incense, and fruit.31 S´veta¯mbara renouncers go to laypeople’s houses for food and/or drink three times a day in a ritual called gocar¯ı (“eating or traveling like a cow”).32 As a cow grazes a little here and there, S´veta¯mbara renouncers are also required to take only small amounts of food from several households, food that they take back to share with their fellow renouncers. That food cannot have been specially prepared for them, and they should go from house to house without preferring one house, or one type of food, over another. By going to several households, renouncers do not overburden any one household and therefore do not violate their vow of non-violence. However, going to several households also benefits laypeople in another way as it allows more laypeople the opportunity to gain punya by giving food to renouncers. ˙Renouncers therefore do not really beg for food, since laypeople often invite them to come to their homes for it.33 This is particularly true for Digambara laypeople. The Digambara “rite for obtaining food” (a¯ha¯ra-vidhi) involves going to only one household to eat once a day, and so opportunities to give Digambara renouncers food are rarer than in the S´veta¯mbara sect. Digambara laypeople often invite monks and nuns to their homes before it is time for them to eat, and laywomen prepare a meal specifically for them in

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case that invitation is accepted;34 or monks and nuns go out to search for food, with the laity calling invitations to their homes along the way.35 Jain renouncers are punctilious about accepting food, and will reject that food if it does not conform to the many rules (related to non-violence) that they must follow regarding it.36 Furthermore, renouncers, especially in the Digambara sect, will often make secret resolutions to accept food only under certain arbitrary circumstances or conditions, and will continue to fast until those circumstances are fulfilled.37 However, both S´veta¯mbara and Digambara renouncers also undertake periods of fasting unrelated to such resolutions. The more reluctant and careful Jain renouncers are about accepting food (or other requisites) from the laity, the more worthy the laity consider them as recipients, and the more punya the laity earn when they give to them.38 Therefore, providing ˙the food that breaks a monk’s or a nun’s fast is believed to result in more punya than providing food to renouncers under normal ˙ circumstances.

Giving food to monks and nuns: The story of Dhanya There is an entire sub-genre of Jain narratives about giving food to renouncers (da¯na-stories).39 Narratives of this type usually stress the purity of the gift of food in three ways: (1) the purity of the action of giving the gift, (2) the purity of the gift itself, and (3) the purity of the giver and receiver.40 In other words, the food should be given freely with feelings of devotion and veneration, the food given should not violate the vow of non-violence in any way, and the receiver of this food should strictly adhere to the rules of renunciation. These narratives also stress the rewards that result from gifting food. For example, when the pure gift is given to a Jina, narratives describe treasures, clothes, and flowers subsequently raining down onto the giver’s household.41 However, narratives also describe various other karmic rewards from giving food to Jinas or renouncers, such as rebirth as a king or a god, success in business, and even being able to marry the woman one loves. Often these narratives connect the good fortune in a character’s current life with their giving food to a renouncer in a previous life,42 and also

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describe greater karmic rewards if the gift of food breaks a renouncers’s fast. There are some stories that are almost identical in emphasizing that one only needs purity of intent, and not any wealth, to reap the greater rewards of breaking the recipient’s fast. The heroes of these narratives are boys from poor families.43 Usually these boys cannot take part in a feast or celebration because of their families’ poverty, and so someone takes pity on them and offers them a sweet dish of some sort. However, as they are about to eat it they see a Jain monk who is about to break a lengthy fast, and so spontaneously and devotedly offer this dessert to him. These boys’ willingness to give up what is a rare treat for them, and their doing so without hesitation and with devotion and veneration, results in rewards such as rebirth in a wealthy family or rebirth as a god. One such narrative is about a poor boy who is eventually reborn later as Dhanya.44 In this story a pious rich family has lost its wealth and so has moved to the city of Supratistha, where the son works ˙˙ herding calves for other families. One day while herding calves the boy saw the citizens of Supratistha converging on the city garden to celebrate a festival feast, so˙ ˙ he left the calves and went home to ask his mother to allow him to take part as well. However, the poverty of his family was such that she could not afford what was needed for her son to enjoy the festival. When the neighborhood women saw her weeping because of this, they took pity and gave her the ingredients to make her son a sweet pudding. While her son was eagerly waiting for the pudding to cool, a Jain monk (who was emaciated from fasting) came to his home for food. Rejoicing at the opportunity, this poor boy offered the Jain monk some of the pudding. Later that evening the boy went to retrieve the calves, which he had left outside the city, but could not re-enter the city again that night because the gates had already been closed. So he remained outside the city where a monk preached about the twelve lay vows, and because of his karma from a previous life, the boy died there that night. As soon as he was subsequently conceived in the womb of the wife of a merchant in that same city, that merchant’s wealth began to increase. And right after his birth, they also found a treasure of gold and jewels with which they paid for a feast to

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celebrate his birth. They decided to name him Dhanya because of the prosperity he brought to the family, but as he grew up his brothers became jealous of him. When they confronted their parents about treating Dhanya with greater respect, their parents replied that he deserved more respect. Angered by this, the brothers demanded that they all be put to the test, and so Dhanya’s parents gave each of them thirty-two rupees to use in trade and to prove their virtue as merchants. While Dhanya returned with great profit because of the punya he earned in his ˙ brothers did not previous life by giving food to the monk, his have such punya and so returned in shame without making any ˙ profits. In the city of Supratistha there also lived a miserly merchant ˙ ˙ never used any of his money to help named Maha¯dhana, who support his relatives, but instead hid all his treasure in his bed. He eventually died in this bed and so his body was brought to the cemetery on it. After the funeral, the director of the cemetery tried to sell the bed, but no one would buy it until Dhanya happened by. Dhanya brought the bed home to his parents, found the treasure, and gave it to them. This was too much for his brothers, who were already consumed with jealousy, and so they decided to murder Dhanya. When one of his sisters-in-law warned him of this plot, Dhanya decided to leave his family and started to wander from place to place. One day a farmer saw him walking down a road and invited him to dinner. While his wife was serving Dhanya his meal, the farmer found a jar of money in his field. Then Dhanya traveled to the city of King S´renika where a gardener decided to take him into his home. King S˙´renika had a daughter who had ˙ grown up with two female companions born on the same date as this princess, and one of them was the daughter of this same gardener. After the daughter of the gardener told the princess of about Dhanya, the princess asked her father to marry her and her two companions to him. While Dhanya and his three wives were living a life of luxury in the palace that King S´renika had given to them, Dhanya ˙ one of the windows and so sent happened to see his parents from for them. They told Dhanya that after he had left, some of their wealth was stolen, some of it was consumed by fire, and some of it was seized by the king for his brothers’ crimes. They were now

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destitute, they told him, and so they and his brothers had come to him for help. Dhanya made his brothers wealthy again and they settled in another city, while his own parents stayed in the palace to live with him and his wives. One day, one of Dhanya’s wives expressed her sadness that her brother was preparing to renounce his family to become a Jain monk. When she described how he was gradually renouncing various luxuries to accustom his body to the hardships that monks endure, Dhanya accused her brother of cowardice for not renouncing straight away. His wife then told Dhanya he should renounce himself if he thought it was so easy. He replied that he would do so if his wives wished, and his three wives said they would renounce as well. And so when Jina Maha¯v¯ıra came to the city, not only did Dhanya’s brother-in-law and his eight wives take initiation to become renouncers, so did Dhanya and his three wives. He and his brother-in-law practiced great asceticism as monks, and then fasted to death to be reborn as gods. In stories about poor boys giving food to monks, such as this story about Dhanya, these boys are pure in their intention and devotion when they give this food. Their poverty makes this purity of intent even more remarkable and laudable. While laymen’s pious giving usually involves dedicating large amounts of wealth to various religious or charitable projects, the gift of food requires no wealth whatsoever and can therefore be given by anyone. All people, no matter how poor, may change their karmic fate regarding prosperity and worldly happiness, as long as they give what food they can to monks and nuns with veneration and sincerity. According to nonnarrative texts the pure intent of the giver means he or she should not give for the purpose of receiving worldly rewards. However, in narratives like the story of Dhanya (and in contemporary life), such rewards are often emphasized, although these narratives also usually describe how these worldly rewards are eventually renounced in order to achieve moksa. ˙ The narrative of Dhanya is a good example of this sub-genre of da¯na-stories about poor boys devotedly giving food to monks, and therefore reaping great karmic rewards. However, it also demonstrates how the karma of one member of a family may benefit the other members. So although non-narrative texts emphasize individualism by describing how everyone is responsible for their

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own karmic fate and spiritual progress, narratives sometimes illustrate how this does not preclude benefiting from someone else’s good karma, especially within a family. Current scholarship indicates that this latter view about lay religiosity is also common today. For example, Jain laymen sometimes attribute their own financial success to their wives’ religiosity.45

Devotional worship with images: The story of King Vajrakarna ˙ There are two ways Jains worship the Jinas: through mental worship (bha¯va pu¯ja¯) and through physical worship (dravya pu¯ja¯) with images.46 Mental worship is common among all Jains and includes telling or reading the stories of the Jinas, singing hymns praising them, repeating prayers or mantras, or meditating on Jinas. Jains who perform temple-rites of worship using images of the Jinas include the Digambaras and the S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jaks, and many of these rites are modeled after narratives describing how gods and goddesses worshipped the Jinas while they were alive.47 However, Jain kings and queens also worship images of Jinas in narratives, and often these narratives also describe the spiritual and worldly benefits of doing so. Digambaras and S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jaks today often worship images (dravya pu¯ja¯) of the Jinas by anointing the image with various liquids during a rite called abhiseka (anointing). Abhiseka is ˙ ˙ and usually done by pouring water, milk, yellow sandalwood water, finally water again over the image. However, coconut water, sugarcane juice, yogurt, and red sandalwood water may also be used in more elaborate rituals. Another rite of worship is the Astaka ˙˙ (1) Pu¯ja¯ (Worship with Eight Substances), which often includes abhiseka, (2) sandalwood paste, (3) flowers, (4) incense, (5) ˙ camphorlamp, (6) uncooked rice, (7) sweets, and (8) nuts or fruit. Although the story related below does not include these specific rites, it does include the rewards believed to result from imageworship. Gods and kings are often the models of lay-worship in Jain narratives, and worshipping like them results in karmic rewards such as being reborn as a king or a god (or enjoying the prosperity and power of a king or a god) before one achieves moksa.48 ˙

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The story of King Vajrakarna, which is included in various ˙ one such narrative about a king versions of the Jain Ra¯ma¯yana, is ˙ worshipping Jina-images. The main story of this epic is about the exile and return of the prince Ra¯ma, his devoted wife S¯ıta¯, and his brother Laksmana. However, there are many embedded stories ˙ the˙ main story) about the people, animals, gods, and (stories within demons they encounter while they are exiled to the forest for several years. The narrative of King Vajrakarna is one such embedded story. However, the image of a Jina that ˙ is being worshipped in this narrative is unusual because it is on a ring that King Vajrakarna ˙ wears on his hand. Furthermore, although there are many narratives involving miraculous icons (the worship of which directly results in fortunate consequences),49 this narrative describes the more indirect fortunate consequences of such worship. King Vajrakarna was a foolish king devoted to sensual pleasure ˙ and to the violent enjoyment of hunting in the forest. One day while he was hunting, he happened on a Jain monk sitting in meditation under the blazing son. Curious, he approached him to inquire who he was. The Jain monk responded by giving him a sermon on violence and its karmic consequence of being reborn in hell. He described the various torments of the seven hells to the king, and he described the Jain path of non-violence that would save him from this. King Vajrakarna was so impressed ˙ with the monk that he decided to take the vows of a Jain layman, and he further vowed to pay homage only to the Jinas and Jain renouncers. However, King Vajrakarna soon realized that this vow could ˙ retained his own kingdom because cause him serious trouble; he of the largess of King Sim ˙ hodara, to whom he previously paid homage. Therefore, he had a ring designed for him with the image of Jina Munisuvrata. Wearing it on his finger, he could now look like he was bowing down to King Sim ˙ hodara when they met, but be bowing down to the image of the Jina on his ring instead. Somehow King Sim ˙ hodara became aware of this ruse, and seething with rage issued an invitation to King Vajrakarna with ˙ the intent to kill him. However, as King Vajrakarna was starting ˙ out on his journey to meet with King Sim ˙ hodara, a man approached him and warned him of the plot. The man was a son

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of a trader who had succumbed to his lust for a courtesan. He told the king that he had been in the palace to steal from the queen some earrings this courtesan coveted. However, when he overheard King Sim ˙ hodara plotting to kill King Vajrakarna, he ˙ hurried to warn him; he did not want the plot to succeed because King Vajrakarna was devoted to Jainism as well as to Jain ˙ the king decided to take his advice and return renouncers. When home, King Sim ˙ hodara became enraged and marched on the city with his armies, burning it to the ground. Ra¯ma, S¯ıta¯, and Laksmana happened on some nearby villages that had been deserted˙ by ˙the terrified inhabitants. When they were told about what happened between the kings Vajrakarna and Sim ˙ hodara, they decided to investigate. Ra¯ma sent Laksman˙ a ˙ to King Vajrakarna to bring back food for them to eat, and˙ when ˙ Laksmana reported back that the king was of good character ˙ him as an honored guest, Ra¯ma decided to help. He and ˙treated sent the great warrior Laksmana to King Sim ˙ hodara. ˙ When Laksmana arrived˙ at King Sim ˙ hodara’s court he did not ˙ ˙ respect, but instead told the king that he was pay the king proper a royal messenger sent to tell him to end his enmity with King Vajrakarna and come to a compromise. However, this only further ˙ enraged King Sim ˙ hodara, who threatened him for his insolence, and so the mighty Laksmana gave him an ultimatum: to come to ˙ ˙Vajrakarna or to die. At this, King a compromise with King Sim ˙ hodara’s guards and warriors˙ attacked the invincible Laksmana. Not only did Laksmana defeat the king’s guards and ˙ army, ˙ ˙ king ˙ and brought him to the Jain mighty but he bound the temple where Ra¯ma and S¯ıta¯ were waiting. Once in front of Ra¯ma, King Sim ˙ hodara fell at his feet and pledged himself in service. Ra¯ma told him that he would be allowed to live if he submitted himself to King Vajrakarna. In the meantime, King Vajrakarn˙a became aware of what was transpiring. He went to the temple,˙ worshipped the images of the Jinas there, and then respectfully greeted Prince Ra¯ma without bowing down to him. Ra¯ma praised him for remaining true to his vow never to pay homage to anyone other than the Jinas or Jain renouncers, and Laksmana offered him a boon. King Vajrakarna, ˙ remaining true to his˙ lay˙ vow of non-violence, asked that King Sim ˙ hodara be released and that no harm come to him. Laksmana ˙ ˙ agreed, but also instructed them to take a vow to remain friends

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thereafter. King Sim ˙ hodara made amends to King Vajrakarna by giving him half his kingdom and wealth, and true to their vow˙ they developed a friendship of mutual respect from that day forward.50 Jain stories often include conversions, such as King Vajrakarna’s ˙ conversion to Jainism and to non-violence, and often it is laywomen and monks who do the converting. Narratives often also emphasize that it is never too late to choose a different path and change one’s karmic fate. In this particular narrative, image-worship results in good karma, which protects the king from danger. However, King Vajrakarna’s conversion also helps protect him in a second way; it results in˙others respecting him enough to help him through a very dangerous situation. Scholars have studied the public religiosity of laymen, such as donations and image worship, and have described how this brings them respect and therefore success in their communities,51 as it brings King Vajrakarna respect and success in ˙ this story.

Conclusion Devotional worship using images is part of Digambara and S´veta¯mbara-Mu¯rtipu¯jak religiosity, whereas the Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı and Tera¯panth sub-sects are aniconic. However, devotion to the Jinas is common to all Jains, whether they use images or not, and Jains often attest to the power of this devotion as well as to the worldly and spiritual benefits that result from it. Jains of all sects and subsects also take part in religious festivals, but there are also other annual Jain festivals besides Maha¯v¯ıra-Jayant¯ı and Aksaya-Trt¯ıya¯ ˙ ˙a¯na(April–May). These include S´ruta-Pañcam¯ı (May–June)/Jñ Pañcam¯ı (October–November), Paryusana-Parva/ Das´ a-Laksana˙ ˙ and Ka¯rttika-Pu¯rn˙ im˙ a¯/ Parva (August), V¯ıra-Nirva¯na (November), ˙ 52 ˙ Ratha-Ya¯tra (December). Religious festivals, recitation of prayers or mantras, and the veneration of renouncers are only a few forms of religiosity shared by different members of Digambara and S´veta¯mbara communities, and the narrative variations concerning how each community approaches these forms of religiosity are too numerous to include in this chapter. The same is true for all the chapters of this book, which only scratches the surface of what can be learned from Jain narratives

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and how these narratives are connected to Jain practices and values. The purpose of this book precludes it from doing justice to the historical contexts and developments of these narratives, and to how narratives continue to be reinterpreted today. Jain stories (and variations of Jain stories) have been composed, changed, and interpreted throughout history in different contexts, and they continue to be composed and reinterpreted today. For example, Jains continue to write and publish the hagiographies of contemporary monks and nuns.53 Also, Jains living inside and outside54 of India today now connect some Jain narratives to contemporary concerns such as environmentalism and animal rights.55 No matter what the variations of Jain religiosity, there are almost always stories that are connected to them.

GLOSSARY

abhis eka a ritual of worship involving the bathing, anointing, purification of˙ an image of a Jina (or other great religious person). ācārya leader of a group of renouncers. ahimsā non-violence or non-harming (one of The Five Great Vows). ˙ anumodan praising or celebrating the religious acts of others, which results in good karma. aparigraha possession/non-attachment (one of The Five Great Vows). ātman soul (also j¯ıva). āśrama religious community or compound. brahmacarya sexual restraint (one of The Five Great Vows). dāna religious giving or charity. Digambara “Sky-Clad” the smaller of the two main Jain sects. dīks ā initiation to become a monk or a nun. ˙ and the three restraints of (1) physical, (2) verbal, (3) mental actions. guptis guru spiritual teacher/guide. guru-vandana the ritual veneration of renouncers. Jina “Victors” re-founders of Jainism. See also T¯ırthan˙karas. jīva soul (also a¯tman). karma microscopic particles that stick to the soul (whenever one does a good or bad action) and produce a like result before falling away from the soul again. kas āya “passions” of attraction and aversion (including anger, pride, deceit, ˙and greed). kevala omniscience while still alive. ks atriya warrior/ruler caste. ˙ Mahāvīra the twenty-fourth Jina. mahāvratas the Five “Great Vows”. moks a “liberation” freedom from rebirth in samsa¯ra after death. ˙ muni˙ naked Digambara monk. Mūrtipūjak S´veta¯mbara sub-sect. Namaskāra Mantra the most important Jain prayer or mantra in all sects and sub-sects venerating those deemed worthy of worship (also called the Pañcanamaska¯ra Mantra, the Noka¯r Mantra). nirjarā purifying the soul of karma.

111

112

GLOSSARY

pāpa bad karma. punya good karma or merit. ˙ power, energy, or ability. śakti samitis the five forms of carefulness in refraining from harming any living being while (1) walking, (2) speaking, (3) accepting alms, (4) moving any item, and (5) disposing of food or bodily waste products. samsāra the world (or the cycle) of reincarnation. ˙ vara inhibiting the influx of karma. sam ˙ “virtuous women” also called maha¯sat¯ıs (“great virtuous women”). satīs śrāvakācāra the proper “conduct” (a¯ca¯ra) of a “layperson” or “layman” (s´ra¯vaka). Sthānakavāsī S´veta¯mbara sub-sect. sūtra religious scripture. Śvetāmbara “White-Clad” the larger of the two main Jain sects. tapas austerities such as fasting, bodily mortification, penance, service, and meditation. Terāpanth S´veta¯mbara sub-sect. Tīrthan ˙karas “Ford-makers” re-founders of Jainism (also called Jinas).

NOTES

Chapter One 1

One possible reason for the relative paucity of books about Jainism in comparison with Hinduism and Buddhism is that Jainism never developed religious movements among European and American converts, as did Buddhism and Hinduism. Unlike Buddhist monks and Hindu swamis from Asia, Jain monks and nuns could not travel to Europe or America because they had to, and still have to, travel everywhere by foot. Consequently, even now while there are European and American Hindu swamis and Buddhist monks/ nuns, the same is not true for Jainism. Also, Jainism’s strong emphasis on ethics possibly did not lend it the same attractiveness to the “Beat” or “Hippie” movements and their focus on alternative states of consciousness that are a stronger part of Buddhism and Hinduism.

2

See Cort (2001a) and Dundas (2002, 10).

3

See also Granoff (1998, 6).

4

See also Cort (2001a, 12, 200–202) and Long (2009, 98–99).

5

Dundas (2002, 24). See also Bechert (1983).

6

For more information about sects, sub-sects, gacchs, and other sub-groupings see Chapter Two. See also Flügel (2006, 2007), Dundas (2002, 45–59, 245–270), Laidlaw (1995, 48–53), Cort (2001a, 40–43; 2002, 37–77), Humphrey and Laidlaw (1994, 46–57), Balbir (2002b, 2003), and Fohr (2005).

7

See Klostermaier (1989) for a detailed introduction of Hinduism using the trima¯rga (karmama¯rga, the jña¯nama¯rga, and the bhaktima¯rga) organization. Throughout Indian history, each of these three paths has continued to develop, interacting with one another. For example, the important karmama¯rga texts called the dharmas´a¯stras (law-books) such as the Manusmrti (The Laws of Manu), were composed later (c. 200 BCE to 400˙ CE) than the other texts of this ma¯rga and were in part a response to the development of

113

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NOTES

the jña¯nama¯rga. And the Hindu epics (bhaktima¯rga), especially the Ra¯ma¯yana, address both bhaktima¯rga and karmama¯rga concerns. ˙ 8 The dates of these texts are from Kinsley (1993, 14). 9 Jamison (1991, 11) and Knipe (1991, 29). For an extensive explanation of Vedic deities and their semantic links to other Indo-European mythologies see Puhvel (1987, 45–67). 10 Knipe (1991, 33). 11 Jamison (1991, 19–20). 12 Knipe (1991, 35). 13 Jamison (1991, 20). 14 Klostermaier (1989, 120). 15 Klostermaier (1989, 120) and Hiltebeitel (1987, 344–345). See also Marriot (1976, 109–142) for more about caste, purity, and transactions. For brahmin–ksatriya rivalries and contests see Doniger and Smith (1991, xxii–xxx) ˙and Klostermaier (1989, 321–326). 16 For more information about Jain merchant castes see Ellis (1991). 17 The dates of these texts are from Kinsley (1993, 14). 18 There are different theories about how the Hindu jña¯nama¯rga developed. For example, Heesterman (1985, 3–4, 30–41) argues that this change from the karmama¯rga to the jña¯nama¯rga was “orthogenetic,” a natural progression of individuation or “interiorization” concerning sacrifices. However, Olivelle (1992, 30–36) argues that renunciation developed due to the socio-economic changes that were taking place in India at that time (most importantly the creation of cities). These, he argues, created the circumstances that led to the emergence of the jña¯nama¯rga, which challenged the Vedic tradition and inverted karmama¯rga values. 19 Hiltebeitel (1987, 341). 20 Jains believe that souls may be reincarnated in bodies that have one or more of all five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Living beings with one sense include microscopic nigodas, earthbodies, water-bodies, fire-bodies, air-bodies, and plant-bodies. See, for example, the S´veta¯mbara Suˉtrakrta¯n˙ga Suˉtra (2.3) for a description of one-sensed beings and animals. ˙ 21 See the S´veta¯mbara and Digambara Tattva¯rtha Suˉtra and commentary (trans., Tatia 1994) for detailed explanations of the tattvas. 22 For example, the S´veta¯mbara and Digambara Tattva¯rtha Suˉtra (1.4) includes only the first seven tattvas, while the Digambara Samayasa¯ra

NOTES

115

(1.13) includes beneficial karma (punya) and harmful karma (pa¯pa) for nine tattvas. See also Jaini (1979,˙ 151) and Wiley (2009, 212). 23 For more information about the detailed categorization of karmic matter in Jainism see Jaini (1979, 112–114, 131–132 ), Dundas (2002, 97–102), Sogani (1967, 49, 54–57), and Wiley (1999, 2000, 2003, 2009). See also the S´veta¯mbara and Digambara Tattva¯rtha Suˉtra (8), the S´veta¯mbara Uttara¯dhyayana Suˉtra (33 & 34), the S´veta¯mbara Suˉtrakrta¯n˙ga Suˉtra (2.2), and the S´veta¯mbara Bhagavat¯ı Suˉtra (6.3. 33–51).˙ 24 For more information about the passions and karma see Sogani (1967, 48–54), Jaini (1979, 112–13), Dundas (2002, 98), and Wiley (2009, 120–121). See also the S´veta¯mbara and Digambara Tattva¯rtha Suˉtra (5. 1–2), the S´veta¯mbara Uttara¯dhyayana Suˉtra (25. 41–43), and the Digambara Samayasa¯ra (8). 25 Hindu brahmin priests eventually responded to Jain and Buddhist criticism of animal sacrifices by eliminating them from their rituals. 26 For example, see the S´veta¯mbara and Digambara Tattva¯rtha Suˉtra (1) and the Digambara Samayasa¯ra (1. 16–18). 27 See the S´veta¯mbara and Digambara Tattva¯rtha Suˉtra (1.2–1.4). 28 See Dundas (2002, 90–93), Babb (1996, 38–41), and Jaini (1979, 127–130). See also the S´veta¯mbara Uttara¯dhyayana Suˉtra (36) and the S´veta¯mbara and Digambar Tattva¯rtha Suˉtra (3–4) for descriptions of the universe (e.g. the heavens and hells), and different types of living beings. See the S´veta¯mbara Suˉtrakrta¯n˙ga Suˉtra (1.5) for ˙ a¯mbara Bhagavat¯ı Suˉtra and descriptions of the hells. See also the S´vet Sikdar (1964, 459–462) for accounts of the denizens of the hells and heavens from the Bhagavat¯ı Suˉtra. 29 The dates of these texts are from Kinsley (1993, 14). 30 Kane (1941–1974, vol. 5, part 2, pp. 950–f) cited by Klostermaier (1989, 211). 31 The Jain concept of God has been described by John Cort (1994b, 599; 2001a, 23, 90–99). See also Vallely (2013, 356–366) for a more detailed description of God and devotion in Jainism. 32 Besides the Jain narratives described here in relation to Hinduism, Jains also developed extensive brhatkatha¯ story literature (e.g. see ˙ J.C. Jain 1981). 33 Hiltebeitel (1987, 347–348). 34 The dates of these texts are from Kinsley (1993, 14). See Padoux (1987) and White (1996, 2000) for more information about tantra. 35 Padoux (1987, 273).

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NOTES

Chapter Two 1 Buddhist nuns also disappeared from Sri Lanka in the tenth century CE and from Myanmar (Burma) in the thirteenth century CE (Barnes 1994, 142; Bartholomeusz 1985, 39; and Tsomo 1999a, 11). 2 See Altekar ([1959] 2005), Jayal (1966), Shastri (1965), Ojha (1981), Leslie (1983), Findly (1985), and Young (1987) for declines of women’s position in Hinduism. 3 Falk (1989 [1980], 155). 4 See Gutschow (2004, 93) and Barnes (1994). 5 For continued evidence of Jain nuns see Deo (1956, 567–569), Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 163–166, 168, 174–189, 202–ff; 2001, 120–121), and Joshi (2009, 44–45, 121). 6 Some scholars who agree with Falk include Sponberg (1985, 7), Bartholomeusz (1985), Lang (1986, 66), and Gutschow (2004). 7 Horner (1930, 162–210, 251–255), Barnes (1987, 105–123), Rhys Davids and Norman (1989), Findly (2000), and Harris (1999). 8 See Horner (1930, 214, 240, 253, 268–269), Kabilsingh (1984, 118), and Barnes (1987, 106). For more information about the itinerancy of the early Buddhist community see Wijayaratna (1990, 18–31). 9 Schopen (2004, 72) and Findly (2000, 149). 10 Schopen (2004). 11 Falk (1989 [1980], 156–157). See also Gross (1993, 58). 12 See also Long (2009, 70–71). 13 See Gutschow (2004, 51–55) and Reynell (1987). 14 For example, see Flügel (1995–6, 153), Carrithers (1989, 231, 232), and Laidlaw (1995, 186). 15 For more information about sects, sub-sects, gacchs, and other sub-groupings see Flügel (2006, 2007), Dundas (2002, 45–59, 245–270), Laidlaw (1995, 48–53), Cort (2001a, 40–43; 2002, 37–77; 2010), Humphrey and Laidlaw (1994, 46–57), Balbir (2002b, 2003), and Fohr (2005). 16 See also Balbir (1994, 122–123; 2002a, 86, 90), Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 512), and Fohr (2006, 166–168; 2014). 17 Flügel (2006, 328). The Jña¯ngacch I and Sa¯dhuma¯rg¯ı are later conglomerations of several earlier and more localized groups (John Cort, personal communication). For more about the Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı sub-sect see Flügel (2000, 2003a, 2007, 2009b). 18 Dundas (2002, 46–49) and Fohr (2005).

NOTES

117

19 See Jaini (1991), Dundas (2002, 55–59), and Balbir (2002a, 72–75). 20 Consequently, although S´veta¯mbaras believe that the nineteenth Jina, Mallina¯tha, was female, Digambaras do not. Kelting (2003b, 232) explains that although the existence of a female Jina in Jain history would appear to be extremely significant for S´veta¯mbara women, and especially nuns, this is largely not the case. According to Jain scriptures, Mallina¯tha was born female because of deceit in a past life, so there are negative associations with her femaleness, and became enlightened before she reached puberty and was therefore not yet a woman. 21 Jaini (1979, 5–6) and Dundas (2002, 47). 22 S´r¯ı Amar Muni’s translation, p. 63. 23 I have modified slightly S´r¯ı Amar Muni’s translation, pp. 205–206. 24 S´r¯ı Amar Muni’s translation, pp. 353–354. 25 However, Flügel (2003b, 15–16) explains that the specific rules of different groups of renouncers are difficult to determine because rules in the sacred texts are sometimes modified by mendicant leaders, including exceptions that change according to historical context. However, these modifications are usually not available to laypeople. 26 See Deo (1956, 163–164). 27 Deo (1956, 258). 28 See Deo (1956, 163–168, 258–280, 400–404) for other texts that limit the quantity and quality of renouncers requisites including the S´veta¯mbara Su¯trakrta¯n˙ga, Jña¯trdharmakatha¯h, Stha¯na¯n˙ga, and Brhatkalpa bha¯sya.˙ See Flügel ˙(2003b, 20–22)˙ for examples of ˙ ˙ specifi c rules concerning the requisites of Tera¯panth samans/¯ıs. ˙ 29 Deo (1956, 269–280, 405–413). Deo (1956, 282) also includes other rules limiting requisites not included in this chapter. 30 Deo (1956, 341–342). A¯ryika¯s are allowed these same possessions, but also two sarees. 31 Deo (1956, 450) and Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 645). 32 Carrithers (1989, 222–223) reports that contemporary Digambara munis’ possessions include only the picchika¯ and kamandalu. See Cort (2001a, 106) for da¯na (pious giving) of requisites ˙to˙ Tapa¯ Gacch monks and nuns. 33 See for example Cort (1999, 94–95), Laidlaw (1995, 55), and Flügel (2003b, 19, 42 n. 63, 43 n. 76, 22). 34 Zydenbos (1999, 296). 35 Deo (1956, 168–177, 415). See also Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 496–504) and Laidlaw (1995, 305–14). For these and other rules for procuring

118

NOTES food in the S´veta¯mbara commentaries see Deo (1956, 280–305). There are numerous rules both to ensure that there is no hardship for those who give it and to ensure the purity of the food. Although Digambara rules are quite similar, there are some differences that are largely based on some Hindu purity rules (see Deo 1956, 342–345). See Flügel (2003b, 21, 22) for rules about food for Tera¯panth samans ˙ and saman¯ıs. See S. Kumar (1999, 19–20) for how he followed these ˙ rules while he was a Tera¯panth monk.

36 Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 668–671). 37 Carrithers (1989, 227–228) and Zydenbos (1999, 293–294). See also Williams (1963 [1991], 158–ff) for rules and rites that laypeople should follow when giving food to renouncers according to medieval S´veta¯mbara and Digambara s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra texts. 38 This story is translated by Fynes (1998, 201–214). See also Cort (2010) for more information about King Samprati. 39 Dundas (2001, 56–57) examines prophetic texts written from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries CE, such as the S´veta¯mbara Angacuˉ liya¯ and Vaggacuˉ liya, that describe Jain teachers of the past ˙ predicting future laxity in the Jain community. This, he argues, indicate that it was during the time these texts were written that problems of laxity were occurring. See also Sen (1941). 40 See Deo (1956) for rules regarding the rainy season retreat from the earliest Jain texts (157–159) and later texts (246–252). See Deo (1956, 386–392) for textual references (mostly from Brhatkalpa bha¯sya) to ˙ the rules of itinerancy. See also Flügel (1995–6,˙134–137) for the Tera¯panth a¯ca¯rya’s organization of rainy season retreats and itinerancy. 41 See Deo (1956, 155–157). 42 See Deo (1956, 241–242). 43 See Deo (1956, 386–392). The Nis´¯ıtha (9. 19) even forbids visiting certain cities frequently while wandering (Deo 1956, 242) because staying in the same places regularly would violate the vow of non-attachment. 44 See Deo (1956, 339). 45 Deo (1956, 242, 476). 46 Deo (1956, 340). 47 Deo (1956, 449). 48 Deo (1956, 341, 446). 49 For example, Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 2001) reports that nuns of various sects and sub-sects today usually stay in one place between a few days and a month, with longer exceptions for old age, illness, or study. Laidlaw

NOTES

119

(1995, 53–54) reports that Muˉ rtipuˉ jak renouncers stay in one place for between a few days and a few weeks. Cort (2001a, 146) reports that Muˉ rtipuˉ jak renouncers may stay for a maximum of one month in one place. Flügel (1995–6, 138 n. 38) reports that the maximum stay for Tera¯panth monks is one month, and for nuns is two months. Carrithers (1989, 221) reports that Digambara munis stay only three days in one place. 50 See also Deo (1956, 476). 51 There is debate about how numerous the yatis were. Flügel (2006, 343) reports that there was only a small number of yatis in the late medieval period. However, John Cort argues that there is evidence that yatis were very common (personal communication). 52 Cort (1991a, 657–659; 2001a, 43–46) and Balbir (2008, 160–165). 53 Flügel (2006, 343) asserts that the number of bhat t a¯raks in the late ˙˙ medieval period was very small. 54 Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 167–171), Carrithers (1984, 1990, 151; 1991, 283–285), and Flügel (2006, 344–347). 55 Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 238–244) and Orr (1998). 56 Deo (1956, 435). 57 Deo (1956, 560). 58 For recent reforms see Carrithers (1990) and Cort (1991a). 59 Deo (1956, 439). 60 Deo (1956, 567). 61 Cort (1991a, 665), citing U.P. Shah (1955). 62 Zydenbos (1999, 291). 63 Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 171, 412). 64 Cort (1991a, 659; 2001a, 41, 43–46) and Laidlaw (1995, 52). 65 Carrithers (1990, 148–149). 66 Dundas (1987–8), Cort (1991a, 656–657; 2001a, 42), Flügel (2006, 317), Laidlaw (1995, 50–51), Babb (1996, 114–115), and Humphrey and Laidlaw (1994, 48–51). 67 Dundas (1987–8, 191) and Cort (1991a, 657). See Dundas (2007) for a detailed account of the early history of the Tapa¯ Gacch. 68 Cort (2001a, 44). 69 The following medieval story of Jines´varasuˉ ri’s winning the debate against such practices is from the Kharataragacchabrhadguruva¯li, translated by Granoff (1993, 172–180).

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NOTES

70 Deo (1956, 440), Cort (1991a, 653; 2001a, 41–42; 2010), and Flügel (1995–6, 121–124). 71 The information in this paragraph, about creation of both the Lon˙ka¯ Gacch and the Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı sub-sect, is from Flügel (1995–6, 121–123). See also Cort (1991a, 652). For more information about the Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı sub-sect see Flügel (2000, 2003a, 2007, and 2009b). 72 The information in this paragraph about the hagiography of A¯ca¯rya Bhiksuˉ is from Dundas (2002, 254–260) and Vallely (2002, 60–62). ˙ 73 For more information about the Tera¯panth sub-sect see Balbir (1983a), Vallely (2002), and Flügel (1995–6, 5/2003; 2009a). 74 See Flügel (1995–6). 75 Flügel (2003, 5–12). 76 Fohr (forthcoming 2014). See also Flügel (2006, table 12.3).

Chapter Three 1 The twenty-four Jinas include (in order from first to last) Rsabha (also A¯dina¯tha), Ajita, Sambhava, Abhinandana, Sumati, ˙ ˙ ˙ Padmaprabha, Supa¯rs´va, Candraprabha, Suvidhi (Puspadanta), S´¯ıtala, ´Sreya¯ms´a, Va¯supuˉ jya, Vimala, Ananta, Dharma, S´a¯nti,˙ Kunthu, Ara, Malli,˙Munisuvrata, Nami, Nemi, Pa¯rs´va, and Maha¯v¯ıra (Vardhama¯na). 2 Jaini’s (1979) groundbreaking book introducing Jainism is titled The Jaina Path of Purification. 3 There is debate about the dates of Maha¯v¯ır’s birth and death, with some putting his death as late as 425 BCE (Dundas 2002, 24). See also Bechert (1983). 4 In Jainism, the sva¯stika also symbolizes the four main states of reincarnation: humans, animals, heavenly beings, and hell-beings. The sva¯stika is a commonly used symbol in India, with different sacred and/or auspicious meanings depending on the religious tradition. Unfortunately, this symbol (the swastika) was also adopted by the murderous Nazis in the mid-twentieth century, much to the consternation of Jains and Hindus. 5 See also Flügel (2003a). 6 See also Flügel (2006, 355). 7 See Jaini (1979, 6–29) and Dundas (2002, 19–39) for summaries and comparisons of Maha¯v¯ıra’s hagiographies in S´veta¯mbara and Digambara texts. For some scriptural hagiographies of Maha¯v¯ıra,

NOTES

121

see the S´veta¯mbara Kalpa Suˉ tra, A¯ca¯ra¯n˙ga Suˉ tra, and Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra; and the Digambar Uttarapura¯na. See ˙ Sikdar ˙˙ ˙ also (1964,˙464–ff) for accounts of Maha¯v¯ıra’s life from the ´Sveta¯mbara Bhagavat¯ı Suˉ tra. 8 For example, see the S´veta¯mbara Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra. ˙ ˙ ˙˙ 9 See the S´veta¯mbara Kalpa Suˉ tra (17–32). 10 See the conclusion for the ritual re-enactment of this bath during Maha¯v¯ıra-Jayant¯ı. 11 See Chapter Five for Jain laymen’s ritual re-enactment of this initiation-celebration when monks and nuns renounce today. 12 See Carrithers (1989) and Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 637). 13 Carefulness is very important for Jain monks and nuns, in part because negligence is not considered innocence in terms of whether or not they accumulate more harmful karma, e.g. see the S´veta¯mbara A¯ca¯ra¯n˙ga Suˉ tra (2. 1–9), Uttara¯dhyayana Suˉtra (32), Suˉtrakrta¯n˙ga Suˉtra (1.8. 2–8; ˙ this in the 10), and Sikdar (1964, 395–396) for excerpts about S´veta¯mbara Bhagavat¯ı Suˉtra. 14 Jaini (1979, 247). 15 See also Jaini (1979, 173) and Sha¯nta¯ (1985, 226). 16 See Wiley (2006) and Long (2009, 107–108) for a discussion of compassion and ahimsa¯. ˙ 17 For example, see the S´veta¯mbara Uttara¯dhyayana Suˉ tra (26. 21–32) for the careful inspection of items (clothing, etc.) for insects. 18 For example, the Digambar Muˉ la¯ca¯ra (4. 90) specifies that nuns are not supposed to adorn or groom themselves to look attractive (Deo 1956, 499). See also Deo (1956, 358) for more Digambara rules about practicing celibacy. Early and medieval S´veta¯mbara texts have many similar rules (see Deo 1956, 324–325). 19 For example, see the S´veta¯mbara Das´avaika¯lika (6. 64–68). 20 For example, see the S´veta¯mbara Das´avaika¯lika (8. 52–58). For other Digambara and S´veta¯mbara references to this in texts see Deo (1956, 207–209, 255, 455, 595–597). For rules about this among Tera¯panth¯ı samans and saman¯ıs see Flügel (2003, 18, 21–22). ˙ ˙ 21 Some exceptions to this rule are found in the S´veta¯mbara Brhatkalpa. If ˙ there is no other person of the same gender to help with extracting a thorn from one’s foot (6. 4) or insect from one’s eye (6. 5–6), one can obtain help from a renouncer of the opposite gender (Sha¯nta¯ 1997, 540). 22 See Deo (1956, 396–397) who summarizes what the S´veta¯mbara Brhatkalpa bha¯sya states about monks and nuns needing to stay in ˙ ˙

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different places (3. 2274–2289), and also about what they needed to do to stay separate them from one another if that was not possible (4. 3750). 23 See also Fohr (2005), Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 531 n. 6), and Deo (1956, 474–475, 482, 490). 24 See the S´veta¯mbara Brhatkalpa (5. 15–18) and the Brhatkalpa bha¯sya ˙ ˙ (5. 5933) (Deo 1956,˙ 476, 413). 25 For more information see Fohr (2001, 2005). 26 See Chapter Two for some sedentary renouncers in medieval and modern history, as well as reforms of and (reactions to) this “laxity.” 27 See also Chapter Two. See Deo (1956) for rules regarding the rainy season retreat from the earliest Jain texts (pp. 157–159), later texts (pp. 246–252), and the rules of itinerancy mostly from the S´veta¯mbara Brhatkalpa bha¯sya (pp. 386–392). See also Flügel ˙ ˙ a¯panth a¯ca¯rya’s organization of rainy (1995–6, 134–137) for the Ter season retreats and itinerancy. 28 See Chapter Two for more detailed information about itinerancy, non-possession, receiving food and other necessities from laypeople at different locations, and the various requisites allowed in different sects and sub-sects. See Chapter Six for more specifics about how laypeople receive good karma by providing food to renouncers. 29 The concept of tapas originated in the earliest historical development of Hinduism, karmama¯rga (“the path of works”), before Jainism and Buddhism developed as separate religions. Kaelber (1976, 1979, 1989) has examined this concept’s etymology from the earliest karmama¯rga text (the Rg Veda) on forward. According to Kaelber, ˙ from the Sanskrit root tap (“to be hot,” “to the term tapas is derived burn,” “to suffer”), and depending on its context in Hindu texts it may refer to suffering, purification, penance, scriptural recitation, fasting, austerity, sexual abstinence, and sacrificial activity. While Buddhism largely did not integrate the concept or practice of tapas into its soteriology, it became very important in Jainism as the means to purify the soul of karmic particles (nirjara¯). 30 Translation by Tatia (1994, 232). See also Cort (2001a, chapter 5) for a detailed account of Jain tapas. 31 Fasting is also an important part of the majority laywomen’s (and a minority of laymen’s) religiosity. Reynell’s (1985a; 1985b, 27–28; 1987, 318–322; 1991, 56–57) scholarship is the first to report that S´veta¯mbara laywomen fast more than laymen, which subsequent scholarship has confirmed (e.g. see Laidlaw 1995, 185, 355-6, and

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Kelting 2009a, chapter 2). Carrithers (1989, 226; 1991, 278) reports the same for Digambara laywomen, but there has yet to be any scholarship focusing on Digambara laywomen’s religiosity or fasts specifically. 32 Other varieties of fasts include fasting for three days, eight days, or every other day for a year. For textual references to different types of fasts see texts such as the S´veta¯mbara Antakrddas´a¯h, ˙ s´¯ıtha, and the Jña¯ta¯dharmakatha¯h, Brhatkalpa bha¯sya, and˙ Maha¯ni ˙ Digambara Muˉ la¯ca¯˙ ra ˙and Anaga¯radharm a¯mrta (Deo 1956, 190–198, ˙ 349, 355, 375, 419, 451, 485–487; Cort 2001a, 137). For epigraphs concerning fasts see Deo (1956, 561–562). For a newspaper article about a Jain nun well-known for her difficult fasts see Dalal’s (2010) article, “67 year-old Jain Sadhvi on record fasting.” For fasts without reference to sect or sub-sect see Stevenson (1915, 261–263). For types of fasts among Muˉ rtipuˉ ja¯ks see Reynell (1985b, 27–28; 1991, 56–57), Laidlaw (1995, chapter 10), Cort (2001a, 134–138), and Kelting (2009a, chapter 2). For types of fasts among Tera¯panthı¯ s see Flügel (2003, 40–41 n. 52–53, 42 n. 66, 43 n. 67–70). For types of fasts among Digambaras see Carrithers (1989, 226). 33 See Caillat (1975) for more detailed information on penance. 34 See Cort (2001b) for more information about S´veta¯mbara monks’ studies. 35 Fohr (2001; 2005, 162). 36 The terms Jain renouncers use for the power accumulated by celibacy and austerities include s´akti, urja¯, tejas, tapasya¯, and v¯ırya. 37 Fohr (2001, 2007). 38 See Fohr (2001). For example, see the S´veta¯mbara Brhatkalpa bha¯sya ˙ (5. 4948–4949), which states that monks and nuns should remain ˙ celibate even if it costs them their lives (Deo 1956, 435 n. 270–271). See also the S´veta¯mbara Stha¯na¯n˙ga that allows renouncers to kill themselves (by hanging or exposing themselves to vultures) if they are not able to be celibate (Deo 1956, 202–203). 39 See Chapter Four for more about celibacy and spiritual power. See also Fohr (2001), Laidlaw (1995, 254–255), and Balbir (2002a, 86). 40 See also the S´veta¯mbara Kalpa Suˉ tra, and Dundas (2002, 26–28). 41 Jacobi’s (1964, 83) translation. 42 Jaini (1979, 21). 43 See also Vallely (2002). 44 See Jaini (1979, 21–25, 24 n. 57) for differences between S´veta¯mbara and Digambara texts involving Makkhali Gosa¯la.

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45 For example, see the S´veta¯mbara Bhagavat¯ı Suˉ tra and Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra. ˙ ˙˙ ˙ 46 See also Granoff (2002, 204, 206) for gods coming to the aid of pious Jains in narratives. See Vallely (2013, 357–358) for more information about the gods that help devotees of the Jinas. 47 See Chapter Six for more about the spiritual power of renouncers. 48 Conversation with S´veta¯mbara-Tera¯panth¯ı Sa¯dhv¯ı (nun) Jinaprabha¯ S´r¯ı J¯ı (who was one of the nuns in both of these incidents) in Ladnun on March 15 1999. See also Fohr (2001, 2007). 49 Jacobi’s (1964, 263) translation. 50 Dundas (2002, 31), citing the Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra and the ˙ ˙ ˙˙ Aupapatika. 51 These studies eventually concluded that verbal and emotional abuse are more harmful to children than physical abuse. For example, see Erickson, Egeland, and Pianta (1989) and Hart, Binggeli, and Brassard (1998) for psychological studies about the effects of emotional and verbal abuse, both recommended to me by Dr. Monica McCoy. 52 Some of the narratives that best illustrate all of this can be found in the S´veta¯mbara L¯ıla¯vat¯ısa¯ra by Jinaratna, translated into English by Fynes (2005) as The Epitome of Queen Lila¯vati (The Clay Sanskrit Library). Jinaratna (the Kharatar Gacch monk-disciple of Jines´vara) completed L¯ıla¯vat¯ısa¯ra in 1285 CE. 53 See also Granoff (1994) for stories that are designed to inspire renunciation.

Chapter Four 1 See Reynell (1985b, 54–57; 1987, 318–322, 399; 1991, 54–59), Kelting (2001a; 2001b; 2009a, 79–98), Laidlaw (1995, 168–169, 174, 304, 355–356), Vallely (2001, 134, 137), Babb (1996, 23–24) and Carrithers (1990, 150; 1991, 277–279). 2 Reynell (1987) and Laidlaw (1995). 3 Kelting (2001b, 22), Vallely (2001, 134, 136, 141; 2002, 223–224), and Fohr (2001). 4 There is one Jain nun to every 50,000 laywomen (Kelting 2009a, 157). 5 This estimate is from Flügel’s (2006) statistics that are largely derived from the Samagra Jain Ca¯turma¯s Suˉc¯ı, edited by Ba¯buˉ la¯l Jain. In

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1999 there were 154 monks and 557 nuns in the S´veta¯mbaraTera¯panth sub-sect, 533 monks and 2,690 nuns in the S´veta¯mbaraStha¯nakava¯s¯ı sub-sect, 1,489 monks and 5,354 nuns in the S´veta¯mbara-Muˉ rtipuˉ jak sub-sect (most within the Tapa¯ Gacch), and 610 monks and 350 nuns in the Digambara sect. In 1999 there was a total of 2,786 monks and 8,951 nuns. There seems to have been a pronounced increase in the number of Stha¯nakava¯s¯ı and Muˉ rtipuˉ jak nuns in particular (see Flügel 2006, table 10). While most S´veta¯mbara renouncers are women, there are twice as many monks as nuns in the Digambara sect, according to these statistics. Nevertheless, the relatively small ratio of Digambara monks to nuns is still unusual within South Asian cultures. Also, these statistics only include munis (male) and a¯ryika¯s (female), but not lesser grades of male and female renouncers. If ailaks (male), ksullaks (male), and ksullikas (female) ˙ of male to female ˙renouncers is five are taken into account the ratio to four (Flügel 2006, table 8). If brahmaca¯rins (male) and brahmaca¯rin¯ıs (female) are also factored in, the Digambara ratio of ˙ would be even smaller or would demonstrate a monks to nuns majority of Digambara nuns as well, but further research is needed to verify this. For example Flügel (2006) points out that in 1999 Digambara A¯ca¯rya Vidya¯sa¯gar had 150 brahmaca¯rinis and only 50 ˙ brahmaca¯rins under his care. 6 See Denton (1991), King (1984), Leslie (1983), Ojha (1981), Khandelwal (1997), and Young (1994). 7 See Chapter Five for initiation (d¯ıksa¯) celebrations. See also Laidlaw (1995, 343), Fohr (2001), and Sethi˙ (2012) for women’s d¯ıksa¯ ˙ celebrations. 8 Fohr (2001). See also Sha¯nta¯ (1997 [1985]) and Reynell (1985a). Several scholars have noted that more widows renounced in the past, but there has been a demographic shift to unmarried women renouncing (Jaini 1979, 247, n. 8; Sangave 1980; Sha¯nta¯ 1997, 438–440; Jaini 1991; Cort 1991a, 660; 2001a, 47; Vallely 2002, 216; Balbir 2002a, 89; Fohr 2001, 2006). 9 In some Hindu communities a virtuous woman was expected to join her husband on his funeral pyre (a ritual that the British called “suttee”), but this was not the case in Jain communities. There is only a small amount of evidence that a few Jain women also practiced this ritual suicide (see Somani 1982, 77–90; Joshi 2009, 91, 146). See also Dehejia’s (1994, 50) explanation of the Hindu meaning and origin of the word “sat¯ı” as simply a “virtuous woman” who is a faithful wife (i.e. pativrata¯). 10 See also Fohr (2001, 2007).

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11 For more information on the sat¯ıs in Jain narratives, also called maha¯sat¯ıs (“great sat¯ıs”), see Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 256–257), Fohr (2001, chapter 5; 2005; 2006, 157; 2007), Balbir (1994; 2002a, 82–84), Kelting (2001b; 2006a; 2006b; 2007; 2009a), and Jain (1990). Jain texts also include stories of the jinama¯ta¯s, mothers of the Jinas, who along with sat¯ıs are venerated in Jainism. See Balbir (2002a, 80), Kelting (2001b, 43–44, 112–113; 2003a), and Sethi (2010, 47–48). For example, S´veta¯mbara texts describe Jina Rsabha’s mother (Marudev¯ı) as the first person to achieve mok˙sa˙ in the present ˙ time-cycle. 12 See Cort (1993a), Jaini (1993), and Balbir (2002a, 82). According to Joshi (2009, 131–132) stories of Jain women are included in the Niryuktis of Bhadraba¯hu (which she dates in the fifth century CE), the Jña¯ta¯dharmakatha¯h (before the sixth century CE), the Bha¯syas ˙ (sixth century CE), Cuˉ˙rn¯ıs (seventh century CE), and Vrttis (starting ˙ in eighth century CE). According to Balbir (2002a, 82) many of the sat¯ı-narratives, including those of Candanba¯la¯, Mrga¯vat¯ı, and ˙ (sixth to the Subhadra¯, appear for the first time in commentaries ´ ¯ twelfth centuries CE) of the Sveta¯mbara Avas´yaka niryukti. The Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra composed in the twelfth century by ˙ ˙˙ ˙ Hemacandra includes a number of sat¯ı-narratives, and Digambara Pura¯nas (seventh to ninth centuries CE) also include them. Some ˙ sat¯ı-narratives were composed earlier than the medieval period. For example, the first version of Sat¯ı Ra¯j¯ımat¯ı’s story was composed BCE (Alsdorf 1974) and is included in the Uttara¯dhyayana Suˉtra, and Sat¯ı S¯ıta¯’s is included in the fourth-century CE Paumacariyam composed by Vimalasuˉ ri. However, like many other Jain stories, the sat¯ınarratives have also been recomposed and retold in other later texts, sometimes with changes and additions. For example, Kelting (2009a, chapter 5) describes the changes to the story of Sat¯ı Ra¯j¯ımat¯ı (Ra¯jul) through time, and she (2007, 118–121) also describes additions in later stories of Sat¯ı Candanaba¯la¯. 13 For example, Solah Maha¯satiya¯n˙ by Muni Dinkar (1985), Ros´an¯ı k¯ı M¯ına¯re by Sa¯dhv¯ı S´r¯ı Nirva¯na (1992), Solah Satiya¯n˙ ed. by Bha¯rill ˙ Ratn by Muni Istimal (1968). (1992), and A¯gam ke Anamol 14 See also Balbir (2002a, 82). 15 Kelting (2009a, 79). 16 For example, Sha¯nta¯ (1997 [1985]) reported forty-seven sat¯ıs among the S´veta¯mbara-Muˉ rtipuˉ jak. 17 See Fohr (2001, 2007). 18 Kelting (2009a).

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19 The following summary of the narrative of Sat¯ı Damayant¯ı (or Davadant¯ı) is based on versions included in the Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra (translated by Johnson, 1931–1962), the ˙ ˙a¯˙rapa¯lapratibhodha ˙ Kum (translated by Granoff, 1998), and the Katha¯kos´a (translated by Tawney, 1895). See Fohr (2001) for Jain nuns’ oral telling of this story. See Damayanti and Nala: The Many Lives of a Story, edited by Wadley (2011) for Indian variants of this story, including Kelting (2011) and Granoff (2011) for further discussion of, and sources for, Jain versions of this story. As Kelting (2011, 252–255) points out, Damayant¯ı’s perfect chastity is emphasized even more in Jain versions of this narrative than in Hindu versions. 20 See also Kelting (2009a, 15). 21 Jina S´a¯ntina¯tha was the sixteenth Jina of this age, but he has not yet been born at the time this story takes place. 22 Although the practice of giving dowries is widespread in India, it is also illegal and very controversial. 23 Laidlaw (1995, 241), Flügel (2009a, 26), and Fohr (2001, 2005). 24 See also Kelting (2009a, 160). 25 For example, see Reynell (1985a, 256–257) and Laidlaw (1995, 241). 26 See also Holmstrom (1988, 14, 60), Cort (1991a, 668 n. 14), Flügel (2009a, 25, 27), and Fohr (2001). 27 See also Kelting (2009a, 199 n. 26). 28 For example, see Harlan (1992). 29 Puri (1999). 30 See also Reynell (1987, 336), Kelting (2009a, 197 n. 26, 75, 199 n. 41), Vallely (2001, 134), and Fohr (2001). 31 Reynell (1987, 336–343; 1991, 61–63). 32 See also Balbir (1994, 126) and Fohr (2001, 2007). 33 Kelting (2009a, 73). 34 See also Fohr (2001, 2007). 35 Granoff (1998, 13) and Fohr (2001, 2005, 2007). 36 See also Fohr (2001, 2007). 37 Fohr (2001). Savitri Holmstrom (1988, 29) also stated that Tera¯panth Jains believe marriage channels s´akti (power) for the benefit of a woman’s husband and family, but a nun’s s´akti is channeled to benefit the larger Jain community.

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38 Joshi (2009, 35, 96, 123, 141) and Pruthi and Sharma (1997,162, 168–171). 39 See also Fohr (2001, 107–108) and Kelting (2009a, 16). 40

Kelting (2001b, 22). See also Vallely (2001, 134, 136, 141; 2002, 223–224).

41 See also Holmstrom (1988, 41) Kelting (2001b, 59), Laidlaw (1995, 257), and Fohr (2001). 42 Reynell’s (1985a, 1985b, 27–28, 1987, 318–322; 1991, 56–57) scholarship was the first to report that S´veta¯mbara laywomen fast more than laymen, which subsequent scholarship has confirmed (e.g. see Laidlaw 1995, 185, 355–356, and Kelting 2009a, chapter 2). Carrithers (1989, 226; 1991, 278) reports the same for Digambara laywomen, but there has yet to be any scholarship focusing on Digambara laywomen’s religiosity or fasts specifically. For fasts without reference to sect or sub-sect see Stevenson (1915, 261–263). For types of fasts among Muˉrtipuˉjaks see Reynell (1985b, 27–28; 1991, 56–57), Laidlaw (1995, chapter 10), Cort (2001a, 134–138), and Kelting (2009a, chapter 2). For types of fasts among Tera¯panthı¯s see Flügel (2003b, 40–41 n. 52–53, 42 n. 66, 43 n. 67–70). For types of fasts among Digambaras see Carrithers (1989, 226). For textual references to different types of fasts see texts such as the S´veta¯mbara Antakrddas´a¯h, Jña¯trdharmakatha¯h, Brhatkalpa bha¯sya, and ˙ s´¯ıtha,˙ and the ˙ Digambara ˙Muˉ˙la¯ca¯ra and Anag ˙ a¯radharma¯mrta Maha¯ni ˙ (Deo 1956, 190–198, 349, 355, 375, 419, 451, 485–487; Cort 2001a, 137). For epigraphs concerning fasts see Deo (1956, 561–562). For a newspaper article about a Jain nun well-known for her difficult fasts see Dalal’s (2010) article, “67 year-old Jain Sadhvi on record fasting.” 43 Kelting (2009a, 49–53). See also Reynell (1987, 321) and Laidlaw (1995, 224–225). 44 Kelting (2009a, chapter 4). See also Sethi (2010, 47). 45 Reynell (1987, 321–322). 46 Reynell (1985b, 28–29, 64; 1987, 348–351), Laidlaw (1995, 185–186, 279–280, 335–337), Kelting (2001b; 2006b, 13; 2009b), Vallely (2002, 222–223), Balbir (2002a, 97), and Singhi (1991, 150). 47 For example, Tera¯panth¯ı nuns told Flügel (2009a, 25) that rural women have less time for themselves and less opportunities than urban women. Also, S´veta¯mbara Gujarati laywomen in Pune told Kelting (2009a, 171) “over and over” the satisfaction they experienced as wives. 48 See also Reynell (1987, 336–347). 49 Kelting (2009a).

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50 Fohr (2001). 51 According to Kelting (2009a, 171), Jain laywomen expressed “over and over” how satisfied they were with their lives as wives. 52 Fohr (2001). See also Holmstrom (1988, 41). 53 See Reynell (1987, 318–322; 1991, 54–57), Balbir (1994, 126–128), and Mahias (1985). 54 Fohr (2001). 55 Reynell (1987, 330). 56 Kelting (2009a, 27–29, 36–37). 57 Kelting (2009a, 88). 58 Kelting (2003a, 644–648; 2009a, 80, 85–89, 97–98, 201 n. 14). 59 Reynell (1991, 59). 60 See Reynell (1985a, 68–69; 1991, 63), Kelting (2001b), and Fohr (2001). 61 Fohr (2001). 62 See also Vallely (2002). 63 For example, see Sinclair-Brull (1997, 63) and Peter Van Der Veer (1989, 462–463). However, also see Daniel (1984, 172) for differing opinions about sexuality and women, with many Hindus saying that women have greater sexual desire than men, but control it better than men. 64 For these views in Buddhism see Bartholomeusz (1994, 66), Aziz (1989, 82), Havnevik (1990, 145–147), Gutschow (2004, 138, 195–196, 215–217), and Makley (1999, 183, 190, 202). 65 For example, see Ojha (1981), Leslie (1983, 1989), King (1984), Khandelwal (1997), and Young (1994) for Hindu textual references of women being too sexual for renunciation. Also see Jayal (1966, 229–230, 291) for denunciations of women as lustful in the Hindu epics. See Sponberg (1985, 19–21), Lang (1986, 78), and Harris (1999, 50–53) for similar references to women in Buddhist texts. 66 See also Balbir (1994, 133), Laidlaw (1995, 254), Vallely (2002), and Fohr (2001; 2005; 2006, 158). 67 Translated by Hermann Jacobi (1968). 68 Translated by Ryan (1998, 73). 69 Translated by R.C.C. Fynes in The Lives of the Jain Elders (1998). 70 Lath (1991, 19–23). 71 See also Balbir (1994, 133), Laidlaw (1995, 254), Vallely (2002), and Fohr (2001; 2005; 2006, 158). Sethi (2012, 54–55, 66–71) argues

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differently: that there is misogyny and “gynophobia” about the lasciviousness of women in Jainism related to oversexed women in narratives. However, narratives about “virtuous women” are arguably more numerous and more influential. 72 Fohr (2001; 2005; 2006, 158). 73 For an example of a contemporary woman who fasted to death see Vallely (2002, chapter 5). 74 See also Fohr (2001, 2007) and Kelting (2006). 75 See Kelting (1996, 1997, 2001b, 2003b, 2006a, 2006b, 2007, 2009a, 2009b, and 2011) for information about S´veta¯mbara-Muˉ rtipuˉ jak laywomen. 76 Findly (1985, 39), Ojha (1981, 257–258, 281), Young (1994, 76–77), Shastri (1965, 49, 100–107), Jayal (1966, 24, 37, 189), and Altekar ([1959] 2005, 31–35). 77 Kane (1941, v. 2, 567–ff) and Jayal (1966, 111). 78 Horner (1930, 162–210, 251–255), Barnes (1987, 105–123), Rhys Davids (1989), Findly (2000), Harris (1999), and Walters (1994). 79 Barnes (1994, 2000), Falk (1989 [1980]), and Gutschow (2004, 93). 80 Falk (1989 [1980], 160–163) 81 Sha¯nta¯ (1997 [1985]) and Deo (1956). 82 Books written by monks and one nun about the sat¯ıs include Solah Maha¯satiya¯n˙ by Muni Dinkar (1985), Ros´an¯ı k¯ı M¯ına¯re by Sa¯dhv¯ı S´r¯ı Nirva¯na (1992), Solah Satiya¯n˙ edited by Bha¯rill (1992), and A¯gam ke ˙ Ratn by Muni Istimal (1968). Anamol 83 Balbir (1994, 134; 2002, 77). 84 Conversation in Koba, outside of Ahmedabad, February 23 1999.

Chapter Five 1 See Williams (1963) for a study of S´veta¯mbara and Digambara s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra texts. 2 The Yogas´a¯stra is translated by Qvarnström (2002). Qvarnström did not translate the auto-commentary of this text; Chapters 1–3 of the auto-commentary contain the most important discussion of the ideal layman (Cort, personal communication). 3 Cort (1991b, 391). 4 Cort (1991b, 391).

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5 Cort (1991b, 393–394). Digambara variations of the gunavratas and ˙ 1963 the s´iksa¯vratas are collectively referred to as s´¯ılas (Williams [1991],˙ 55–110). 6 For example, the S´veta¯mbara Upa¯sakadas´a¯h includes several stories of extremely rich merchants who take these˙ vows and renounce attachment to their wealth. 7 Jaini (1979, 188) and Cort (1991b, 398). 8 For more information about kings as exemplars for Jain laymen see Merutun˙ga’s Prabandhacinta¯mani (133–ff) and Cort (1998, 96–102). ˙ The role of king, and the symbolism and metaphor of kingship, has other significances in Jainism not explored in this chapter (e.g. see Dundas 1991). 9 For example, see Bhatt (1983, 122) for the not uncommon Jain narrative theme of monks being reborn as gods. There are some non-narrative exceptions to this. For example, see Williams (1963 [1991], 161) for some non-narrative s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra texts (such as the Digambara Bha¯va samgraha by Devasena) also describing worldly ˙ benefits. 10 Williams (1963 [1991], 153–154). 11 Cort (1991b; 2001a). 12 See Cort (2001a; 1991b), Kelting (2009a), and Long (2009, 98–99). 13 For example, see Ellis (1991). Some south Indian Digambara laymen are farmers. 14 Reynell (1987), Norman (1991, 38), Singhi (1991, 149), and Cort (1991b, 2001a). 15 Williams (1963 [1991], 182) and Cort (1991b, 394). See Williams (1963 [1991], 149–166) for da¯na in various S´veta¯mbara and Digambara s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra texts. 16 For example Reynell (1985b), Cort (1991b, 1994, 2001a), Singhi (1991), Humphrey (1991), Babb (1996), Humphrey and Laidlaw (1994), and Laidlaw (1995). See Carrithers (1991) about Digambara laymen. 17 Williams (1963 [1991], 260). 18 This list is in the chapter “The Proper Conduct of a Layman” of the Yogas´a¯stra. 19 Translation by Qvarnström (2002, 69). See also Williams (1963 [1991], 164–166, 264) for Hemacandra’s seven fields, and also for what percentage of his wealth a layman should set aside for pious giving according to s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra texts.

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20 See Wiley (2006, 441–442) and Long (2009, 99) for compassionate charity’s connection to ahimsa¯. ˙ 21 See Williams (1963 [1991], 154–ff) for rules about what laypeople may and may not give to monks and nuns in medieval s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra texts. For example, laymen are forbidden from giving renouncers money. 22 Dundas (2002, 197), who cites India Today (International edition), 15 July 1988. 23 See Williams (1963 [1991], 161) for the purification of negative karma and the accumulation of positive karma through the practice of religious giving (da¯na) according to some non-narrative s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra texts. 24 Reynell (1987) and Cort (1991b; 2001a). 25 One of the most popular Hindu versions of the story is Tuls¯ıda¯s’s Ra¯macaritma¯nasa (sixteenth century CE). However, there are many versions of this story including the Va¯lm¯ıki Ra¯ma¯yana (from the second century BCE to second century CE), which is˙ also very popular. See Hess (2006), Lamb (2002), Flueckiger and Sears (1991), Shulman (1991), and Richman (1991, 2000) for the many different Hindu versions, performances, and interpretations of the Hindu Ra¯ma¯yana. ˙ 26 Jain versions of the Ra¯ma¯yana include the Digambara Paümacariya by Vimalasuˉ ri (first to fourth˙ century CE), the Digambara Padmacarita (Padmapura¯na) by Ravisena (seventh century CE), ˙ Svayambh˙ uˉ deva (ninth to tenth century Digambara Paumacariu by CE), and a section of the S´veta¯mbara Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra by ˙ ˙ ˙ information ˙ about the Hemacandra (twelfth century CE). For more Jain Ra¯ma¯yanas see Kulkarni (1959, 1960, 1990), Chandra (1964, ˙ 1970), De Clercq (2001, 2005a, 2005b, 2007, 2008), and Jaini (1993, 215–219). See S. Kumar (1999, 5, 27) for Tera¯panth monks telling the story of the Jain Ra¯ma¯yana to the laity when they ˙ preached for ten weeks. 27 There are versions of this story in the Paümacariya, the Padmacarita (Padmapura¯na), the Paumacariu, and the Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra. ˙ ˙ ˙˙ ˙ 28 Paraphrased from the Digambara Paumacariu (Sandhi 28.9). 29 Paraphrased from the Digambara Padmapura¯na (Parva 35, vs. ˙ 109–115). 30 Paraphrased from the Digambara Padmapura¯na (Parva 35, vs. ˙ 159–163). 31 See Chapter One and also Jamison (1991, 20).

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32 Conversation with author in Ladnun Rajasthan (India) on March 14 1999. 33 See Reynell (1987, 318–322; 1991, 54–57) and Kelting (2001b, 22). 34 Reynell (1985b, 28–29, 64; 1987, 348–351), Laidlaw (1995, 185–186, 279–280, 335–337), Kelting (2003a; 2006b, 13; 2009b), Vallely (2002, 222–223), Balbir (2002a, 97), Singhi (1991, 150), and Cort (1991b, 403). 35 See Flügel (2003b, 11–14) and Vallely (2002, chapter 4) for more information about the initiations of S´veta¯mbara-Tera¯panth¯ı monks, nuns, samans, and saman¯ıs. See Cort (1991a, 653–654) for more ˙ information˙ about the initiations of S´veta¯mbara-Muˉ rtipuˉ ja¯k renouncers. See Carrithers (1990, 154) for the self-initiations of Digambara munis in the past, and see Dalrymple (2010, 21–22) for a Digambara nun’s description of her own initiation. See Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 458–466) and Sethi (2009, 179–187) for Stha¯nakva¯s¯ı initiations. See also Kelting (2009a, chapter 5). 36 Paraphrased from the S´veta¯mbara Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra. ˙ ˙˙ ˙ 37 See for example Singhi (1991, 150) and Laidlaw (1995, 343). 38 Although there is much in initiation rites and celebrations that are different from weddings (see Sha¯nta¯ 1997, 457–466), nevertheless scholars have remarked on the resemblance of women’s d¯ıksa¯s to ˙ (2002, wedding festivities, including Cort (1991a, 667, n. 4), Vallely 91; 2005, 238), Holmstrom (1988, 19–20, 23), Laidlaw (1995, 343), and Kelting (2001b, 53). Kelting (2009a, chapter 5) argues that initiations are actually versions of the Hindu rites of a sat¯ıma¯ta¯ going to die with her husband on his funeral pyre. It is also possible that both Hindu sat¯ıma¯ta¯ rites and Jain initiations incorporated the symbolism of wedding celebrations and rites. Since all three of these (initiations, weddings, and suttee) are considered auspicious, they would necessarily share some of the same auspicious symbolism. 39 S. Kumar (1999, 10). 40 S. Kumar (1999, 12). 41 Conversation with author in Ahmedabad (India) on February 21 1999. See also Fohr (2005). 42 The information in this paragraph is from Fohr (2005). 43 Zydenbos (1999, 296). 44 Personal communication with Peter Flügel on September 1 2002. See also S. Kumar (1999, 23–24). 45 The narrative of Nala and Damayant¯ı (or Davadant¯ı) is included in the Katha¯kos´a (translated by Tawney, 1895), the

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Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra by Hemacandra (translated by Johnson, ˙ ˙˙ ˙ Kuma¯rapa¯lapratibodha (translated by Granoff, 1931–1962), and the 1998). See Fohr (2001) for Jain nuns’ oral telling of this story. See Damayanti and Nala: The Many Lives of a Story, edited by Wadley (2011) for Indian variants of this story, including Kelting (2011) and Granoff (2011) for Jain versions of this story. 46 Paraphrased from the Katha¯kos´a and Kuma¯rapa¯lapratibodha. 47 See also Williams (1963 [1991], 149–154) for the importance of both the worthiness of the recipient and also the sincere devotion of the giver in non-narrative s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra texts. 48 Williams (1963 [1991], 45, 245). 49 Babb (1996, 79–ff). 50 These are the qualities of a safe and well-guarded house (Williams 1963 [1991], 262). 51 This means that a layman should not be so miserly that he dresses in a way that causes him to be treated with derision and disrespect (Williams 1963 [1991], 264–265). 52 The eight qualities of intelligence include the desire to listen, listening, understanding, memorizing, general knowledge, specialized knowledge, knowledge of the substance, and knowledge of the essence (Williams 1963 [1991], 265). 53 According to Hemacandra, diseases are caused by eating on a full stomach (Williams 1963 [1991], 265). 54 Dharma is religion or duty, a¯rtha is worldly success, and ka¯ma is sensual pleasure. 55 According to Hemacandra, only renouncers need to exclude wealth and sensual pleasures from their lives in order to focus on religion. Laymen, on the other hand, are only called on to not focus on wealth and sensual pleasure to the exclusion religion (Williams 1963 [1991], 266). 56 According to various authors of s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra texts, this means that a layman should support members of his family including his parents, wife, children, and any other relatives without means of support (Williams 1963 [1991], 267–268). 57 According to Hemacandra, this means a layman should have good and ethical judgment in what he decides to do (Williams 1963 [1991], 268). 58 The six enemies include lust, anger, greed, arrogantly rejecting good advice, pride, and sadistic pleasure (Williams 1963 [1991], 269). 59 Translation by Qvarnström (2002, 29–30). 60 See Williams (1963 [1991], 85–ff, 247, 250).

NOTES

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Conclusion 1 See Dundas (2002, 198–199) and Cort (2001a, 155). 2 Kelting (2001b). 3 For example see Jaini (2000 [1986]) and Cort (2001a). 4 The information below about these the festivals is largely drawn from Jaini (2000 [1986]), Dundas (2002), and Wiley (2009). 5 Balbir (1983b, 154) and Bender (1983, 275–276). 6 For example, this narrative is included in the Digambara A¯dipura¯na ˙ and Harivams´apura¯na, as well as the S´veta¯mbara A¯vas´yaka niryukti ˙ sacaritra (Balbir 1983b, 153–154). and Trisastis´˙ala¯ka¯puru ˙ ˙˙ ˙ 7 Jaini (2000 [1986], 247) 8 Versions of the Ba¯hubali narrative are included in the S´veta¯mbara Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra, and in the Digambara A¯dipura¯na. See ˙ ˙˙ (1990, 208–244) ˙ ˙ of Strohl for an English translation of the story Ba¯hubali in the A¯dipura¯na. ˙ 9 Translated by Strohl (1990, 225). 10 See also Babb (1996, 22). 11 Modified from Cort’s (2001a, 66) translation. There are some variations of this mantra among different groups of S´veta¯mbaras. 12 For more on having a good death by focusing the mind on something religious see Vallely (2002, 193). 13 Translated from Tamil into English by Ryan (2005). 14 Ryan’s translation (2005, 231). 15 Ryan’s translation (2005, 233). 16 The narrative of Nala and Damayant¯ı (or Davadant¯ı) is included in the Katha¯kos´a (translated by Tawney, 1895), the Trisastis´ala¯ka¯purusacaritra ˙ ˙˙ and the ˙ by Hemacandra (translated by Johnson, 1931–1962), Kuma¯rapa¯lapratibhodha (translated by Granoff, 1998). See Fohr (2001) for Jain nuns’ oral telling of this story. See Damayanti and Nala: The Many Lives of a Story, edited by Wadley (2011) for Indian variants of this story, including Kelting (2011) and Granoff (2011) for further discussion of Jain versions of this story. 17 Conversation with author in Hastinapur (India) in February 1999. See also Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 623) for a Stha¯nakva¯s¯ı nun who was reported to have the power to heal. 18 See Denton (1991), King (1984), Leslie (1983), Ojha (1981), Khandelwal (1997), and Young (1994), who examine women’s

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marginal and minority position in Hindu renunciation. Although Hindus do not generally believe women should renounce, there are still some respected female renouncers in this tradition (see Khandelwal 2004, Pechilis ed. 2004). See Brown (2001), Bartholomeusz (1994), Havnevik (1990), Gutschow (2004) for the examination of the less respected and supported positions Buddhist nuns in various South Asian Buddhist countries. For example, Tibetan/Himalayan Buddhist nuns usually have much lower status than monks, and are sometimes even ridiculed rather than respected. For example, see Tsomo (1999b, 186), Schneiderman (1999, 225), and Gutschow (2000, 117 n. 18). For Tibetan/Himalayan nuns being slandered or ridiculed within their cultures see Havnevik (1990, 43, 147–154), Grimshaw (1992, 43, 70), Gutschow (2004, 175, 195–196), Makley (1999, 183, 185–187, 197, 202, 228, 238 n. 69, 239). For more information about the veneration of Jain nuns see also Stevenson (1915, 232–233), Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 581–582, 595–596, 618), Laidlaw (1995, 99, 240, 262–267, 329–330), and Reynell (1991, 60–61). 19 See also Laidlaw (1995, 3) and Vallely (2002, chapter 7) for the veneration of renouncers. 20 See also Cort (2001a, 111–117) and Long (2009, 111–113). 21 For example, one of these publications is the Samagra Jain Ca¯turma¯s Suˉc¯ı. 22 See also Vallely (2002, 83–84) for initiations of new monks and nuns as centers of pilgrimage. 23 For example, see S. Kumar (1999, 4, 7, 8). 24 See also Vallely (2002, 103–104). 25 Fohr (2006, 164). 26 See also Fohr (2001, 2007). See also Cort (2001a, 111–113) for more about guru-vandana. 27 See also Flügel (1995–6, 154) and Vallely (2002, 180–181). Cort (2001a, 115) describes how some Tapa¯ Gacch laymen believe their financial success results from the blessings of their guru-renouncers. 28 See also Vallely (2002, 199). 29 For example see Vallely’s (2002, 43–ff) description of worshipping renouncers during alms-giving among the S´veta¯mbara-Tera¯panthı¯s. 30 Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 669). 31 Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 669). 32 See also Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 496–504), Laidlaw (1995, 305–314), and Cort (2001a, 106–111). 33 For example see S. Kumar (1999, 5).

NOTES

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34 Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 668–671). 35 Mahias (1985, 249–251), Carrithers (1989, 227–228), Zydenbos (1999, 293–294), and Cort (2001a, 107–108). 36 See Sha¯nta¯ (1997, 502–504). 37 Cort (2001a, 107, 223–224 n. 16). 38 See also Laidlaw (1995, 321) and Vallely (2002). 39 See also Balbir (1983b). 40 Balbir (1983b, 148). See also the Tattva¯rtha Su¯tra (1994, 178) and Vallely (2002, 48). 41 Balbir (1983b, 148–149). 42 See also Balbir (1983b, 156). 43 For example, the story of Krtapunya is included in the A¯vas´yaka ˙ (Balbir ˙ niryukti and its commentaries 1983b, 156–157), and the story of S´a¯libhadra/San˙gama is in the Sa¯libhaddacarita and Matisa¯gara written in Old Gujara¯t¯ı (Bender 1983, 275–276). See also Vallely (2002, 49) for an oral telling of the story of San˙gama. 44 This story of Dhanya is paraphrased from Tawney’s (1895, 78–85) translation of the S´veta¯mbara Katha¯kos´a. 45 Kelting (2009a, 88). 46 For more detailed descriptions of various types of worship, including worship using images, see Humphrey and Laidlaw (1994), Laidlaw (1995), Babb (1988, 1996), Cort (1994a, 2001a), Kelting (2001b, 2009a), and Dundas (2002). 47 Babb (1996, 64–84). 48 See also Babb (1996, 79–81). 49 See Cort (2010). 50 The story of King Vajrakarna is summarized from chapter 33 of the Digambara Padmapura¯na. ˙ ˙ 51 Reynell (1987), Norman (1991, 38), Singhi (1991, 149), and Cort (1991b, 2001). 52 For more information about these festivals see Jaini (2000 [1986]), Dundas (2002), and Wiley (2009). 53 See Balbir (2008). For examples of these hagiographies see Jain (1992) Ganin¯ı a¯ryika¯ Gya¯namat¯ı and Jhabak’s The Life and Work of ˙ Vijaya Vallabh Suriswarji. Acharya Sri 54 See Banks (1992) for more information about Jains living in England. 55 See Chapple, ed. (2002).

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154

INDEX

abhiseka, 93, 106, 111 ˙ 111; A ¯ ca¯rya Bhadraba¯hu, a¯ca¯rya, ¯ ca¯rya Bhiksu¯, 32–33, 22; A ¯ ca¯rya ˙Candana¯, 34; 120n72; A ¯Aca¯rya Raguna¯tha, 32–33; ¯ ca¯rya Tulsı¯ , 34 A ahimsa¯, 9–10, 111 121 n13; and ˙ charity, 78; and Ba¯hubali, 94–95; and giving food to renouncers, 102; and Maha¯vı¯ra, 39, 50; rules for laypeople and renouncers, 42–43; and The Five Great Vows, 37, 40–41; King Vajrakarna, ˙ Great 107–109 (see also The Five Vows and maha¯vratas) Aksaya-Tr tı¯ya¯, 92–93 ˙ ˙ 100–106 (see also alms-giving, laypeople) Añcal Gacch, 20, 30 anumodan, 78, 82–84, 93, 111 aparigraha, 111, and charity, 78; and clothing, 45, 47; Das´avaika¯lika Su¯tra, 22–23; Maha¯giri and Suhastin, 26; rules for samans and samanis, 34; and ˙ ˙ The Five Great Vows, 37, 40, (see also The Five Great Vows, itinerancy and maha¯vratas) a¯s´rama, 20, 111 asteya, 37, 40 (see also The Five Great Vows and maha¯vratas) austerities, 9, 13, 36; austerities (twelve), 37; and celibacy, 48; external (six), 37, 46, 48; fasting,

37,46–49, 63,102; internal (six), 37, 46–47; and kevala, 49, 51; of Maha¯vı¯ra, 49–51; and nirjara¯, 46; and s´akti, 48, 50–51, 67–68, 100 (see also nirjara¯ and tapas) a¯tman, 7, 9, 111 (see also jı¯va and soul) Ba¯hubali, 93–95 Ba¯hubali-Mastaka-Abhisekha, 93 ˙ Bharata, 93–95 brahmacarya, 111; and The Five Great Vows, 37, 40, 43–44; and s´akti, 70 (see also celibacy, The Five Great Vows and maha¯vratas) Buddhism, 4–5, 8–13, 33; decline in India, 15–20; laymen, 20; decline of Buddhist monks and nuns in India, 15, 17–20, 71–72 caityava¯sins, 29–32 celibacy, 43, 48, 100, 121 n18, 123 n38; of Damayantı¯, 68–69; of Maha¯vı¯ra, 40, 43; chastity (of laywomen), 68; importance of, 59, 70; and s´akti, 48, 67–68, 70, 98 (see also brahmacarya, Damayantı¯ and satı¯s) Damayantı¯, Satı¯, Chapter Four; chastity of, 60–64; marriage of, 57–58; s´akti of, 67–68; tapas of, 65

155

156

INDEX

da¯na, 14, 77, 82, 111, 132 n23; in narratives, 80–81, 105; and prabha¯vana¯, 87; and religious festivals, 92 (see also Dahnya) Dahnya, 102–105 (see also da¯na) Digambara, 20–22, 111; and abhiseka, 106; aparigraha, 23–24; and ˙dravya pu¯ja¯, 91, 106; hagiographies of Jina Maha¯va¯ra, 38–39, 44, 49, 51–52; hierarchy of monks and nuns, 36–37; renunciation of clothing, 21–22, 29, 47; and sub-sects of, 20 dı¯ksa¯, 56, 82–84, 99, 111, 133 n38 ˙ Five Great Vows, The, 13, 37, 40–41, 45, 52–53; and Maha¯vı¯ra, 40, 52 (see also ahimsa¯, ˙ aparigraha, asteya, brahmacarya, maha¯vratas and satya); Gosa¯la, Makkhali 50–51 guptis, 13, 41, 111 guru, 47, 111 guru-vandana, 100–101, 111 Hinduism, 4–12, 70–72, 79; female renouncers, 55, 71; and satı¯s, 56 itinerancy, 16–19, 27–28, 30, 34; and caityava¯sins 29–32; and Jines´varasu¯ri, 30–32; and Maha¯vı¯ra, 40 Jina, 4–5, 11–12, 16, 35, 39, 52–53, 111, 120 n1; in religious festivals, 92–99; narratives of, 37, 38, 82, 84, 88; worship of, 72–73, 95–96, 99, 101–102, 106–109; (see also Maha¯vı¯ra, Rsabha and Tı¯rthan˙ karas) ˙˙

Jines´varasu¯ri, 30–32 jı¯va, 8, 37–38, 111 (see also a¯tman and soul) Kapila, 78–81 karma, 7–9, 12, 14, 17, 111; and laypeople, 42–43, 45; in narratives, 99; and nirjara¯, 48, 63; and samvara, 47; (see also ˙ ya) pa¯pa and pun ˙ kasa¯ya, 9–10, 37, 111; and ˙Mahavıra, 40–41; and ¯ ¯ renouncers, 43–46 kevala, 10, 38, 52–53, 111; of Maha¯vı¯ra, 49, 51–52 Kharatar Gacch, 20–21, 30 (see also Mu¯rtipu¯jak) ksatriya, 38–39, 111 ˙ Laksmana, 78–80, 107–108 ˙ ˙Chapter Five, 9, 14, 29, laymen, 35, 52, 77–78, 109; and charity, 20; and chastity, 59, 62, 89; and da¯na, 80–83, 87, 91–92; exemplars for, 75–76; and protection and support of renouncers, 85; in religious festivals, 91 (see also Yogas´a¯stra) laypeople, and ethics, 41–44; and alms giving, 28, 32–33, 101–106; and regulation of renouncers, 21, 28–29, 32–34; and veneration of renouncers, 11, 99–101 (see also laymen and laywomen) laywomen, Chapter Four, 14, 35, 52; and chastity (in marriage), 68; and da¯na, 77; religiosity of, 67, 82, 91–92; and satı¯-narratives, 56, 62–64; and veneration of satı¯s, 71 (see also celibacy) Lon˙ ka¯ Gacch, 32

INDEX

Maha¯giri, 24–26 Maha¯vı¯ra, Jina, 4, 13, 35, 92, 111, 120 n3; austerities of, 48–51; celibacy of, 43; guptis and samitis of, 40–41; kevala of 51–53; renunciation of, 82–83; s´akti of, 50–51; and The Five Great Vows, 39–40, 44, 46, 52 maha¯vratas, 37, 40–41, 45, 52–53, 111 (see also ahimsa¯, aparigraha, ˙ satya and asteya, brahmacarya The Five Great Vows) moksa, 111; and aparigraha, ˙ 21–22; in Buddhism (nirva¯na) ˙ and Hinduism, 7–10, 12; of Damayantı¯ and Nala, 69, 87; of Maha¯vı¯ra, 52; in narratives, 3, 12, 53, 76, 96, 105–106; of renouncers, 36–38 monks, Chapter Three, 11–13, 124–125 n5; and ahimsa¯, 42–43; ˙ and alms collection, 24–27, 117–118 n37; and aparigraha, 21–24, 45, 117 n28, n29, n32; and austerities, 47–48; and celibacy, 43–44, 48; in festivals, 92; hierarchy of, 36–37; and renunciation, 39, 47; protection and support of, 85; The Five Great Vows, 40–41, 45, 52–53; veneration of renouncers, 99–102 (see also muni) muni, Digambara, 44–45, 47, 85, 111, Mu¯rtipu¯jak, 13–14, 20, 29, 111; and dı¯ksa¯, 83–84; and dravya pu¯ja¯, 88,˙ 91; formation of gacchs, 29–30; and itinerancy, 28–30; and satı¯s, 71–72 (see also Añcal Gacch, Kharatar Gacch, Tapa¯ Gacch, and S´veta¯mbara sub-sects)

157

Nala, King, celibacy of, 69–70, 87; exile of, 60–61; gambling of, 59–60, 64; pa¯pa and punya of, ˙ 86–87; special powers of, 68–69; wedding to Damayantı¯, 57–58 Namaska¯ra Mantra, 95–99; and Damayantı¯, 98; and moksa, 96, 99; and pa¯pa and punya, ˙99 ˙ nirjara¯, 9–10, 37–38, 111; and fasting, 63; (see also austerities and tapas) nuns, Chapter Four, 11–13, 34; and alms collection, 24; and aparigraha, 21–24, 117 n28, n29, n32; and austerities, 47–48; and celibacy, 68, 70; decline of Buddhist nuns in India, 15–18; in festivals, 92; hierarchy of, 36–37; necessity of clothing, 22; preponderance of nuns, 55–56, 63, 67–68, 70–73, 124–125 n5; Tapa¯ Gacch restrictions of, 20; and veneration of, 99–102 pa¯pa, 9, 46, 76, 99, 112; of Damayantı¯ and Nala, 86–87; and laymen, 76, 78, 85 punya, 9, 11, 17, 112; and alms ˙ giving, 102–104; of Damayantı¯ and Nala, 87; and da¯na, 78–81; and laypeople, 16, 21, 76–77, 88; and protection of renouncers, 85 Ra¯ma, 78–80 Ra¯vana, 78, 89 ˙ Jina, 92–93, 95 Rsabha, ˙˙ s´akti, 51, 112, 123 n36, 127 n37; from celibacy, 48, 70; of Maha¯vı¯ra, 50–51; from tapas,

158

INDEX

47–48; from venerating renouncers, 100 samans and samanis, 34, 36 ˙ ˙ samitis, 13, 41, 112 samsa¯ra, 3, 7–8, 11, 37, 64, 112 ˙ vara, 9–10, 37–38, 47, 112; sam ˙ and The Five Great Vows, 45 satı¯s, 14, 56, 112; and chastity, 61–62, 64, 68–73; importance of satı¯-narratives, 72–73; and s´akti, 62, 67–68; satı¯-narratives, 56, 62; and tapas, 73 (see also Damayantı¯ and Sı¯ta¯) satya, 40–41, 75 (see also The Five Great Vows and maha¯vratas) Sim ˙ hodara, King, 107–109 Sı¯ta¯, Satı¯ 78–80, 89, 107–108 soul, 8–12; and austerities, 46–48; infinite qualities of, 37, 47–48; and moksa, 52, 76 (see also ˙ jıva) a¯tman and ¯ s´ra¯vaka¯ca¯ra, 75–77, 87–89, 112, 132 n21 Stha¯nakava¯sı¯, 13, 20–21, 32, 43, 88, 109, 112; (see also S´ veta¯mbara sub-sects) Suhastin, 24–26

S´ veta¯mbara, 43, 112; and aparigraha, 21–24, 45; and austerities, 46; hagiographies of Jina Maha¯vı¯ra, 39–40, 49–52; sub-sects 20–21, 32–33 (see also Mu¯rtipu¯jak, Stha¯nakava¯sı¯, and Tera¯panth) tapas, 9, 13, 112; austerities (twelve), 37, 46–48; of Ba¯hubali, 94; of Damayantı¯, 65 (see also austerities and nirjara¯) Tapa¯ Gacch, 20; reformation of lax conduct, 30 (see also Mu¯rtipu¯jak) Tera¯panth, 13, 20, 43, 88, 112; and A¯ca¯rya Bhiksu¯, 32–33; and innovations,˙ 34, 36 (see also S´ veta¯mbara sub-sects) Tı¯rthan˙ karas, 4, 35 (see also Jina) Vardhama¯na, (see Maha¯vı¯ra) Vajrakarna, King, 106–109 ˙ yatis 28–29, 119 n51 Yogas´a¯stra, 75, 77, 88–89

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161

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163

164