Jains in India and Abroad

SR No.: 007601
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Prakash C Jain
Publisher: International Summer School for Jain Studies
Publication Year: 2011
Total Pages: 260
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 6 MB

Page 147

Jaina have shrewdly realized that the true way of increasing our wealth is by curbing our desires. When we remember that the Jaina creed has forced its holders to become a commercial people, we can see the special value this view of limitation might have, if it were really lived up to".
More direct attempts at savings of time as well as money by the Jains can be seen in the absence of expensive rituals among them which, by way of comparison, are absolutely essential for traditional Hindus. The death ceremony is a case in point. Among the Jains the mortal remains of the dead are not necessarily taken to the confluence of sacred rivers or to the places of pilgrimage; instead they are consigned to a local river, lake, and pond or even in the bushes. "Jains neither performs the shradha ceremony nor gives Dana or gifts to Brahmins" (Sangave 1980: 345). Pindadana, i.e., the custom of offering rice balls to the dead has no sanction in Jain religion, and the custom of giving death feasts is also on the decline, particularly in big cities. Perhaps the Jains were also first among those who adopted one-day marriages (instead of three-four days long ceremonies), and group marriages for the poorer sections of their community. At the individual level the prescribed simple way of life further helped in having considerable savings. In the words of Nevaskar (1971: 198-99): "Abstinence from intoxicants, meat, and honey, avoidance of status pride and anger regulated the daily life of a Jain. He simply had no way left in which to squander his wealth." Thus, to quote Weber (1958: 201), "as with the Puritans, the strict methodical nature of their prescribed way of life was favourable in accumulation of wealth."
Jainism as a religion is relatively a better researched area, especially in terms of studies of rituals and worship, role of mendicants, duties of laymen and laywomen, sect-wise organisation of religion, and religious ethic, etc (See Babb 1998, Carithers 1989, Cort 1991, 2001; Folkert 1993, Humphrey and Laidlaw 1995, Weber 1958, Williams 1963). Still, lots of sociological investigations are required in all these areas. Thus for example, what percentage of Jain population is deeply motivated by the concept of moksha, and the Jain path of liberation, and therefore rigorously follow the course of householder's duties is a moot sociological question. How the
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