JAINISM

a religion and philosophy of India, founded in about the 6th century BC by Vardhamana, who is known as Mahavira (Great Hero)the 24th of the Tirthankaras (Ford-makers), Jinas (Conquerors; whence the name Jainism), the great religious figures on whose example the religion is centredin protest against the orthodox Vedic (early Hindu) ritualistic cult of the period; its earliest proponents may have belonged to a sect that rebelled against the idea and practice of taking life prevalent in the Vedic animal sacrifice. Jainism, which does not espouse belief in a creator god, has as its ethical core the doctrine of ahimsa, or noninjury to all living creatures, and as its religious ideal the perfection of man's nature, to be achieved predominantly through the monastic and ascetic life. a religion and philosophy of India. Along with Hinduism and Buddhism, it is one of the three most ancient of India's religious traditions still in existence. The name Jainism derives from the Sanskrit verb root ji, to conquer. It refers to the ascetic battle that the Jaina monks must fight against the passions and bodily senses in order to gain omniscience and the complete purity of soul that represents the highest religious goal in the Jaina system. The monk-ascetic who achieves this omniscience and purity is called a Jina (literally, Conqueror, or Victor), and adherents to the tradition are called Jainas, or Jains. Although Jainism has a much smaller number of adherents than do Hinduism and Sikhism, its influence on India's culture has been considerable, including significant contributions in philosophy and logic, art and architecture, grammar, mathematics, astronomy and astrology, and literature. Jainism has largely been confined to India, although the migration of Indians to other, predominantly English-speaking countries has spread its practice to many Commonwealth nations and to the United States. Its continuous existence in India for some 2,500 years is in sharp contrast to Buddhism, which is widespread in Asia but no longer widely practiced in the land of its origin. This gives Jainism a unique status as the only Sanskritic non-Hindu religious tradition to have survived in India to the present. Additional reading General sources Good introductions are Hermann Jacobi, Jainism, in Encyclopdia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 7, pp. 465474 (1928); and Colette Caillat, Jainism, in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. by Mircea Eliade, vol. 7, pp. 507514 (1987). Standard works include Hermann Jacobi (trans.), Gaina Sutras, 2 vol. (188495, reissued as Jaina Sutras, 1968), with noteworthy introductions by Jacobi to each volume; Johann George Buhler, On the Indian Sect of the Jainas, trans. from German, 2nd ed. (1963); Helmuth Von Glasenapp, Der Jainismus (1925, reprinted 1964), the most comprehensive text on Jainism, and The Doctrine of Karman in Jain Philosophy, trans. from German (1942); and Walther Schubring, The Doctrine of the Jainas (1962; originally published in German, 1935), a scholarly work, and The Religion of the Jainas, trans. from German (1966). See also Chhotelal Jain, Chhotelal Jain's Jaina Bibliography, 2nd. rev. ed., edited by Satya Ranjan Bannerjee, 2 vol. (1982); Amulyachandra Sen, Schools and Sects in Jaina Literature (1931); Jagmanderlal Jaini, Outlines of Jainism (1916, reprinted 1982); A.L. Basham, History and Doctrine of the Ajivikas (1951, reprinted 1981), a discussion of the Ajivika influence on early Jainism; Chhogmal Choprha, A Short History of the Terapanthi Sect of the Swetamber Jains and Its Tenets, 4th ed. (1950); Bimala Churn Law, Mahavira: His Life and Teachings (1937), a good introduction to the subject; and Padmanabh S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification (1979), a survey that discusses the Jaina understanding of karmic bondage and the path to liberation. Special studies Nathmal Tatia, Studies in Jaina Philosophy (1951, reprinted 1980), especially the discussion on the problem of ajana, or false sense of reality, in various systems; Narendra Nath Bhattacharyya, Jain Philosophy: Historical Outline (1976); Satkari Mookerjee, The Jaina Philosophy of Non-Absolutism: A Critical Study of Anekantavada, 2nd ed. (1978), a standard work by an authority on Indian philosophy; Mohanlal Mehta, Jaina Philosophy, new ed. (1971), Jaina Culture (1969), and Jaina Psychology: A Psychological Analysis of the Jaina Doctrine of Karma (1957); Shantaram B. Deo, History of Jaina Monachism from Inscriptions and Literature (1956); R. Williams, Jaina Yoga (1963, reprinted 1983), a masterly analysis of the Jaina ethics concerning the laity, with critical notes on authors of different sourcebooks; Dayanand Bhargava, Jaina Ethics (1968); Hari Satya Bhattacharya, Jain Moral Doctrine (1976); T.K. Tukol, Sallekhana Is Not Suicide (1976), a treatise on the monastic ritual of self-starvation; Kamal C. Sogani, Ethical Doctrines in Jainism (1967); Vilas Adinath Sangave, Jaina Community: A Social Survey, 2nd ed. (1980); Champat R. Jain, Jaina Law (1926); Colette Caillat, Attonements in the Ancient Ritual of the Jaina Monks (1975; originally published in French, 1965); Colette Caillat and Ravi Kumar, The Jain Cosmology (1981); and A.N. Upadhye, Upadhye Papers (1983), a collection of essays on Jaina history and literature by an eminent Jaina scholar. Literature and art M. Winternitz, History of Indian Literature, vol. 2 (1933, reprinted 1971; originally published in German, 1920); H.R. Kapadia, A History of the Canonical Literature of the Jainas (1941), a good description of the Jaina canon; A. Chakravarty, Jaina Literature in Tamil (1974), a survey of Jaina works in this South Indian language and Jaina influence on Tamil literature; Jagdishchandra Jain, Prakrit Narrative Literature: Origin and Growth (1981); B.C. Bhattacharya, The Jaina Iconography, 2nd rev. ed. (1974), a brief outline of the subject; Jyotindra Jain and Eberhard Fischer, Jaina Iconography, 2 vol. (1978), a later work; Umakant P. Shah, Studies in Jaina Art (1955), a review of Jaina art in North India, with a discussion of various symbols in Jaina worship and a good bibliography, and Akota Bronzes (1959), a description of rare Jaina bronzes from a site in Gujarat; A. Ghosh (ed.), Jaina Art and Architecture, 3 vol. (197475); Klaus Fischer, Caves and Temples of the Jains (1956); Moti Chandra, Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India (1949), a standard textbook; W. Norman Brown, The Story of Kalaka (1933), a well-known work on Kalakacarya and miniature Jaina paintings; Umakant P. Shah (ed.), Treasures of Jaina Bhandaras (1978); and P.B. Desai, Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs (1957), a useful compilation. Umakant Premanand Shah G. Ralph Strohl