Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T12:20:27.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Monks and Miracles: Religious Symbols and Images of Origin among Osvāl Jains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

L. A. Babb
Get access

Extract

Jainism is well known as a radically ascetic strategy for achieving liberation from the world''s bondage. It is less well known as a system of religious belief and practice embedded in social life. This article will examine Jainism as a symbolism of social identity. At the center of my inquiry is a puzzling cultural fact, the seemingly paradoxical claim by many nonviolent Jains to be descended from warlike Rājpūts. Despite its extreme emphasis on ascetic withdrawal from the world, Jainism is, as I hope to show, deeply implicated in the worldly identity of certain social groups and even can function as a kind of origin myth for these groups. Understanding how this is possible requires a considerable departure from the usual perspective on Jainism. The ascetic is normally the center of attention in Jain studies. This article, however, will give equal attention to a figure less frequently considered. This is the warrior-king.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 3 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of reference

Babb, Lawrence A. 1998. “Giving and Giving Up: The Eightfold Worship among śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains.” Journal of Anthropological Research 44: 67–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhansālī, Sohanrāj. 1992. Osvāl Vaṃś, Anusandhān ke Ālok mé. Jodhpur: Kuśalam Jain Granthālaya.Google Scholar
Bhatnagar, V. S. 1974. “Akbar and Jainism.” Jijñāsā 1(3/4):52–59.Google Scholar
Bhūtoṛiyā, Māngīlāl. 1998. Osvāl Itihās kī Amar Bel. Calcutta: Priyadarśī Prakāśan.Google Scholar
Cort, John E. 1989. “Liberation and Wellbeing: A Study of the Śzvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains of North Gujarat.” Ph.D. diss., Harvard University.Google Scholar
Cort, John E. 1991. “The Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jain Mendicant.” Man (N.S.) 26: 549–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dundas, Paul. 1997–88. “The Tenth Wonder: Domestication and Reform in Medieval Śvetāmbara Jainism.” Indologica Taurinensia 16:181–94.Google Scholar
Dundas, Paul. 1991. “The Digambara Jain Warrior.” In , M. Carrithers and , C. Humphrey, eds., The Assembly of Listeners: Jains in Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Granoff, Phyllis. 1989a. “The Biographies of Siddhasena: A Study in the Texture of Allusion and the Weaving of a Group Image.” Part One. Journal of Indian Philosophy 17:329–84.Google Scholar
Granoff, Phyllis. 1989b. “Religious Biography and Clan History among the Śvetāmbara Jains in North India.” East and West 39 (Nos. 1-4): 195–215.Google Scholar
Granoff, Phyllis 1990a. “The Biographies of Siddhasena: A Study in the Texture of Allusion and the Weaving of a Group Image.” Part Two. Journal of Indian Philosophy 18:261–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granoff, Phyllis 1990b. “Jain Biographies.” In Granoff, Phyllis, ed., The Clever Adulteress and Other Stories. Oakville (Ontario): Mosaic Press.Google Scholar
Guṇārthī, Rameścandra. 1987. Rājasthānī Jātiyõ kī Khoj. Ajmer: Arya Brothers Bookseller.Google Scholar
ĀCāRYAśRī, Hastīmaljī Mahārāj. 1988. Jain Dharm kā Maulik Itihās (Prathan Bhāg, Tīrthankar Khaṇḍ). Jaipur: Jain Itihās Samiti.Google Scholar
Hoernle, A. F. Rudolf. 1890. “The Paṭṭāvali or List of the Upkesa-Gachchha.” Indian Antiquary 19 (August 1880):233–42.Google Scholar
Jaini, Padmanabh S. 1985. “The Pure and the Auspicious in the Jaina Tradition.” Journal of Developing Societies 1:84–93.Google Scholar
Jośī, Madanlāl, ed. 1962. Dādāvaṛī-Digdarśan. Bombay: Pratāpmal Sethiyā (Srījindattsūri Sevā Sangh).Google Scholar
Kalpasūtra. 1994. Editor and Hindi translator, Mahopadhyaya, Vinaya Sagar. English translation by Lath, Mukund. Jaipur: Prakrit Bharati.Google Scholar
Laidlaw, James. 1985 “Profit, Salvation and Profitable Saints.” Cambridge Anthropology 9(3):50–70.Google Scholar
Muktiprabhvijay, Muni. N.d. Śrāvak ko Kyā Karnā Cāhiye. Trans, (from Gujarati) by Śāh, Radiāl. Vaḍhvāṇ Śahar: Kalyāṇ Sāhitya Prakāśan.Google Scholar
Nāhṭā, Agarcand (presumed author). 1988. Dādā Guru Caritra (Cārd Dādā Sāhab kā Sankṣipt Jīvan). Ajmer: Śrī Jindattsūri Maṇḍal.Google Scholar
Nāhṭā, Agarcand and Bhanvarlal, . 1978. Jainācārya Pratibhodit Gotra evam Jātiyā. Pālītāṇā: Śri Jinharisāgarsūri Jnān Bhaṇḍār.Google Scholar
Reynell, Josephine. 1985. “Honor, Nurture and Festivity: Aspects of Female Religiosity Amongst Jain Women in Jaipur.” Ph.D. diss., Cambridge University.Google Scholar
Reynell, Josephine. 1987. “Prestige, Honour and the Family: Laywomen''s Religiosity amongst the Svetambar Murtipujak Jains in Jaipur.” Bulletin d'' Etudes Indiennes 5 (1987):313–59.Google Scholar
“RDDHISāR.” 1962. Śrī Dādā Gurudev kī Püjā. Calcutta: Śri Jain Śvetāmbar Upāsray Committee.Google Scholar
Smith, Vincent A. 1917. “The Jain Teachers of Akbar.” In Commemorative Essays Presented to Sri Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.Google Scholar
Śrīmāl, Rājendra K. N.d. Śrīmāl Jāti (Ek Paricay). Jaipur: Śrī Lābhcand Pustakalāya.Google Scholar
Suryyamall, Yati. 1941. Jain Ratnasār, Calcutta: Surana Printing Works.Google Scholar
Vidyut, Prabhā Śrī. 1980. Camakte Sitāre. Barmer: Śrī Kuśalsūri Bhakti Jain Maṇḍal.Google Scholar