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Jains declined in numbers after the
medieval period. In some ways this strengthened Jainism for it
produced tight-knit communities of Jains with common interests and a
devotion to the faith reinforced by their closeness within the
group. In the early nineteenth century we must speak of communities,
rather than of a single Jain community, for within the wider
structure of the Jain religion Jainism provided, and indeed still
provides, for a number of sometimes over lapping allegiances.
Besides the broad division between the Svetambara, strongest
in Western India, and the Digambara mainly in the south,
there is the Sthanakvasi sect (within the Svetambara
division) which rejects the worship of images. The Terapanthi,
an offshoot of the Sthanakvasi, dates from 1760 and has become a
well-organized and active movement. The Svetambara, more than the
Digambara, have always shown a tendency to form groupings around
particular teachers and their successors. Allegiance to a particular
temple often can run parallel to family or caste allegiance. We must
be honest about the fact that, as in any live and active
organization, religious or secular, differences of opinion can arise
within the broad unity of the Jain faith.
In
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries we can pick out certain
mainstreams of development. With the growth of modern communications
there has been a notable development of All-India federations of
various sorts. Secondly, Jain scholarship, education and writing
have broadened out at all
levels, whether simple aids for children or learned editions
of the sacred texts and university theses on Jain topics. Thirdly,
Jains have become much more conscious of the wider public
without seeking to count heads of converts like many
religions, Jains have become concerned to spread knowledge of the
Jain religion and to encourage adherence to its principles. Parallel
to this there has been a growing (though still small) interest by
scholars and others in the West and by non-Jains in India. Lastly,
for the first time in Jain history, Jainism has been carried to
Africa, Europe and North America, where Jain communities have
settled and flourished.
Jains have a long association with finance and
commerce and many were well placed to play a leading role in the
economic development of modern India. There was an influx to the big
commercial and manufacturing centres of Bombay and Calcutta in the
nineteenth century. Development was not without its traumas: when
Jain businessmen first became involved in the cotton industry in
Ahmedabad they were criticized by co-religionists fearful of the
harm to tiny living beings implicit in the operation of the great
new machines. The reputation of Jain businessmen for honesty and
fair dealing, together with a simple way of life, stood them in good
stead and many prospered exceedingly. Prosperity reinforced the
traditional Jain devotion to charitable causes. The building of
temples, some of great beauty and richness like the great white
marble edifice to the fifteenth Tirthankara erected in
Ahmedabad in 1848 by a prominent businessman, went ahead in the
nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. Educational institutions have been
endowed and publishing of religious works supported.
Peculiarly Jain institutions, the refuges for sick animals
are maintained. Generosity to Jain causes, by people of all income
groups, is a major Jain characteristic, but generosity is not
confined to Jain causes alone.
In 1893, a 'World Parliament of Religions' was held in
the United States and the organizer sought a Jain representative. The
invitation went to Acharya Atmaramji but as a monk it was not
possible for him to travel so the task of being the Acharya's
representative and the first Jain to explain his religion to a major
oversea gathering fell to Sri VIRCHAND GANDHI, Honorary Secretary of
the Jain Association of India. His lectures in the U.S.A. earned him
a silver medal from the Parliament of Religions for his scholarly
oratory. He received other honors and a philosophical society named
after him was established.
Going on to England he continued his lecturing (he gave 535
lectures in all). One of his students was Herbert Warren who became
secretary of the Jain Literature Society founded with Virchand
Gandhi's help. Herbert Warren wrote two successful books on Jainism
explaining the subject in a straight forward up-to-date way.
Virchand Gandhi died at the very early age of thirty-seven.
Another learned layman was CHAMPAT RAY JAIN, a
barrister by profession. Fluent in Hindi, Urdu and English, he
studied the Christian and Muslim religions and claimed that their
message was essentially the same as that of Jainism. He published a
dozen books in the 1920s and '30s, including The Key of Knowledge,
Jain Law, and What is Jainism? In his writings and lectures he
explained religion in twentieth century terms,using the concepts of
modern psychology and science.
SRIMAD RAJCHANDRA is especially remembered as the
spiritual mentor of Mahatma Gandhi. The Mahatma, though not himself
a Jain, was deeply influenced by Jain doctrines, particularly
non-violence. Rajchandra wrote many books, with emphasis on the soul
and its purification. He died young but his work survives in a
number of religious centres or foundations established by his
followers.
The monastic order has known many who have made
significant contributions to Jain learning and Jain religion in the
past century.
ACHARYA VALLABHVIJAYA SURI was born in 1870 and lived to be
84. The shock of losing both his parents as achild turned him to
spiritual quests and at the age of seventeen he became a monk as a
disciple of the famous Atmaramji. It was the dying wish of his
teacher that Vallabhvijaya should devote himself to the
establishment of educational institutions. It is for this work that
he is especially remembered. In his long life he established schools
and colleges. Mahavir Jain Vidhyalaya, founded under his guidance to
provide university hostels and religious education, and help with
higher education for poorer students, now has seven branches and has
produced very many graduates. Acharya Vallabhvijaya was a simple and
effective preacher, free from sectarian bias, with a love for people
of all faiths and a devotion to his native land and the cause of its
independence.
The Terapanthi sect, which, like the Sthanakvasi from which
it separated in the eighteenth century, does not worship images, has
a single spiritual leader or Acharya. In 1936 his position passed to
twenty-one year old ACHARYA TULSI. It was an inspired choice, for
this young man was to transform the Terapanthi. He has traveled to
almost every part of India. He has shown particular concern for
education and preaching, putting emphasis on study, research and
writing by Terapanthi monks, and by nuns as well. The Jain Vishva
Bharati which emerged from his work is an institution for higher education in
the Jain field. The Anuvrata Movement which he initiated in 1949
works for moral uplift, honesty and a non-violent, non-exploitive
society: some of its members are non-Jains. In 1980, he introduced
another innovation with the initiation of the first of a new order
of 'lay nuns' and 'lay monks', shramanishramana
and shramana.
Whilst dedicated to the life of nuns and monks, they are dispensed
from the prohibitions on traveling in vehicles and on eating with
lay people (and cooking for, themselves if essential) as well as
from certain toilet rules incumbent on the full-fledged mendicant.
KANJI SWAMI was originally a Sthanakvasi but after much
searching found that the Digambara sect best answered his spiritual
needs. He is known for his work on Kundakunda, a great south Indian
Jain writer probably of the third or the fourth century A.D. A
movement which he started in 1934, which stresses inward thought
rather than external ritual, attracted followers who hold him in
great reverence.
Another distinguished scholar was VIJAYA DHARMA SURI
(1868-1922) who wrote many books on Jain philosophy and ethics in
Sanskrit, Gujarati and Hindi, edited texts and inscriptions, started
an important series of published texts, the Yashovijaya Jaina
Granthamala (named after the seventeenth-century scholar Yashovijaya),
established schools and corresponded with many Indian and European
scholars.
The list could go on for pages! Let us end by
mentioning RATNACHANDRAJI MAHARAJ who completed in 1932 the
publication of a four-volume dictionary of Ardha Magadhi ,
the language of the ancient Jain scriptures, with explanations in
Sanskrit, Gujarati, Hindi and English.
One important development in recent decades has been
the publication of good modern editions, often with translations
into modern languages, of the sacred books of Jainism, thus making
the scriptures, formerly restricted to monks, available to a wider
public. Ray Dhanpati Simha Bahadur initiated the printing of Jain
Agama texts in the 1880s.
The Sacred Books of the Jains series, started by Kumar
Devendra Prasad Jain, published from 1917 various Digambara texts
with English translations and commentary. Bharatiya Jnanpith, of
Varanasi, engages in research and publication, and a steady stream
of publications comes from the L.D. Institute of Indology in
Ahmedabad. The L.D.Institute is building up an important Jain
manuscript collection in original and micro film. There is, in fact,
a great deal of publishing in India in the Jain field, ranging from
children's books to university theses on specialized topics, from
commercial publishers as well as from Jain institutions. The quality
is very varied: magnificent (and often expensive) books on Jain art
or works of serious advanced scholarship can be seen along side
amateurish (but certainly sincere) little pamphlets. Periodicals of
one sort and another have proliferated since 1857: over 120 titles
can be counted, including in English the Jain Journal (Calcutta) and
The Jain, trilingual in English, Gujarati and Hindi (published by
Jain Samaj Europe). Five universities in India have professors of
Jain studies and a new institution in Delhi may well become the
major centre in this field.
The challenge from both Muslim and Christian missionary
effort towards the end of the nineteenth century was one factor
behind the establishment of a number of nationwide Jain
institutions, but they also enable Jains to face the challenges of
the modern world in a united way.
The All-India Digambara Jain Conference first met in 1893. A
similar Svetambara organization dates from 1903 and a united meeting
of 700 Svetambara monks was held in 1934 to reaffirm the traditional
rules. The Sthanakvasi held their first national conference in 1906
and took an important step in 1952 when they recognized Atmaranji
Sadadi as the single chief Acharya (religious leader) of the sect:
his present successor is Acharya Anandarushi. A wider dimension was
given to Jain unity with the formation in 1899 of the Jain Young
Men's Association which became in 1910 the All-India Jain
Association. In 1973 the 2500th anniversary of Mahavira's mokshamoksa
was the occasion for wide spread celebrations and marked the new
resurgent spirit of Jainism. Emigration from India
has led to Jain communities emerging in East Africa, Europe
and North America. Jain temples have been set up in Mombasa and
Nairobi, and the first in Europe will be in Leicester. In North
America various Jain associations have come together in a single
federation.
Western interest in Jainism is growing, though
slowly. Much work has been done by Western scholars since Major
Colin Mackenzie published his 'Account of the Jains' in the journal
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1807. The Germans were to become
the most active in the field of Jain research. A landmark was the
publication in 1884 of the first two volumes of Jain Sutras,
translated into English by Hermann Jacobi. It would not be
appropriate here to give a long catalogue of names, but it would
include English, German, French, Italian and even Japanese scholars.
Although good general accounts of the Jain religion have long
been available in French and German, no such work by an English
writer has been published except Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson's The Heart
of Jainism (1915), a sympathetic book but coloured by a strong
Christian missionary outlook. At a more popular level, knowledge of
Jainism and the Jains is filtering only very slowly into Western
consciousness. Within the Jain community there is a desire to make
the principles of Jainism known to a wider world and this cannot do
anything but good.
There is no doubt that now, in the late twentieth
century, Jainism is in a healthy state. The great pilgrimage centres
are popular, religious practices and ceremonies attract large
numbers, charity towards Jain cause is generous. Jainism has spread
beyond the bounds of India and the ambitious Jain Centre in
Leicester is an example to all.
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