As has been mentioned, 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 overlapping 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 centers 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.
Let us now pick up a few, only a few, examples of the
prominent people who have been particularly concerned with the promotion
of Jain faith and principles over the past century.
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 overseas 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 straightforward
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
centers 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 Vallbhvijay Suri was born in 1870 and lived to be 84. The
shock of losing both his parents as a child 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 Vallabhvijay 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 Vallabhvijay 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', shramani 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 Kunda-Kunda, 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 Vijay 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 Ardhamagadhi, 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. Baharatiya 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 microfilm. 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 alongside 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 center 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 moksa was the occasion for widespread 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 Mombassa 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 colored 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 centers 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 Center in Leicester is an example to all.
