MantraOnNet.com:
largely in Gujarat and Rajasthan, in parts of Mumbai (formerly Bombay),
and in the state of Karnataka (Mysore), as well as in the larger cities
of the Indian peninsula. The Jains totaled about 3.7 million as the 1990s
began, but they exert an influence in the predominantly Hindu community
far out of proportion to their numbers; they are mainly traders, and their
wealth and authority have made their comparatively small sect one of the
most important of living Religions Of India.
Origins
Jainism is somewhat similar to Buddhism, of which it was an important
rival in India. It was founded by Vardhamana Jnatiputra or Nataputta Mahavira
(599-527 BC), called Jina (Spiritual Conqueror), a contemporary of Buddha.
As do the Buddhists, the Jains deny the divine origin and authority of
the Veda and revere certain saints, preachers of Jain doctrine from the
remote past, whom they call tirthankaras (“prophets or founders of the
path”). These saints are liberated souls who were once in bondage but became
free, perfect, and blissful through their own efforts; they offer salvation
from the ocean of phenomenal existence and the cycle of rebirths. Mahavira
is believed to have been the 24th tirthankara. Like adherents to their
parent sect, Brahmanism, the Jains admit in practice the institution of
caste, perform a group of 16 essential rites, called samskaras, prescribed
for the first three varna (castes) of Hindus, and recognize some of the
minor deities of the Hindu pantheon; nevertheless, their religion, like
Buddhism, is essentially atheistic.
Fundamental to Jainism is the doctrine of two eternal, coexisting,
independent categories known as jiva (animate, living soul: the enjoyer)
and ajiva (inanimate, nonliving object: the enjoyed). Jains believe, moreover,
that the actions of mind, speech, and body produce subtle karma (infraatomic
particles of matter), which become the cause of bondage, and that one must
eschew violence to avoid giving hurt to life. The cause of the embodiment
of the soul is thought to be karmic matter; one can attain salvation (moksha)
only by freeing the soul of karma through the practice of the three “jewels”
of right faith, right knowledge and right conduct.
Differences in Doctrine
These principles are common to all, but differences occur in the
religious obligations of the monastic orders (whose members are called
yatis) and the laity (sravakas). The yatis must observe five great vows
(panca-mahavrata): refusal to inflict injury (ahimsa), truthfulness (satya),
refusal to steal (asteya), sexual restraint (brahmacarya), and refusal
to accept unnecessary gifts (aparigraha). In keeping with the doctrine
of nonviolence, they carry the Jainist reverence for animal life to its
most extreme lengths; the yati of the Svetambara sect, for example, wears
a cloth over his mouth to prevent insects from flying into it and carries
a brush to sweep the place on which he is about to sit, to remove any living
creature from danger. The observation of the nonviolent practices of the
yatis was a major influence on the philosophy of the Indian nationalist
leader Mohandas Gandhi. The secular sravaka, in addition to his observance
of religious and moral duties, must engage in the adoration of the saints
and of his more pious brethren, the yatis.
The two main sects of Jainism, the Digambara (space-clad, or naked)
and the Svetambara (white-clad, wearers of white cloth), have produced
a vast body of secular and religious literature in the Prakrit and Sanskrit
languages. The art of the Jains, consisting primarily of cave temples elaborately
decorated in carved stones and of illustrated manuscripts, usually follows
Buddhist models but has a richness and fertility that mark it as one of
the peaks of Indian art. Some sects, particularly the Dhundia and the Lunka,
which reject the worship of images, were responsible for the destruction
of many works of art in the 12th century, and Muslim raids were responsible
for the looting of many temples in northern India. In the 18th century
another important sect of Jainism was founded; it exhibited Islamic inspiration
in its iconoclasm and rejection of temple worship. Complex rituals were
abandoned in favor of austere places of worship called sthanakas, from
which the sect is called Sthanakavasi.