Contribution of Jainas to Sanskrit and Prakrit Literature

Author(s): Vasantkumar Bhatt, Jitendra B Shah, Dinanath Sharma
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad

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Contribution of Jainas to Sanskrit and Prakrit Literature
this tension particularly impinges on women becomes clear when we bring Mahia's data into dialogue with Reynell's. Jain women are expected to follow the relatively restricted dietary practices of the Jains, in terms of the range of what is eaten, the frequency of fasting, and the observation of the prescription of eating after sunset. At the same time, the women are expected to prepare food for their husbands, who, as part of their participation in the broader nonJain social universe, are less strict in all of these observances. An English translation of this book is under preparation for publication in India.
Both Reynell and Mahias help us see some of the ways in which the Jain tradition constructs gender roles. This subject is also addressed from an historical, textual perspective in a suggestive essay by Zwilling and Sweet (1996). An excellent overview of research into the roles and place of women in Jainism, covering both textual and fieldwork studies, is provided by Balbir 1994. Her article should be the starting point for all research into Jain women; to my knowledge, the only thing that has escaped her notice is a distinctly unhelpful statistically-oriented sociological study by Tongia (1991). Our knowledge of the ways in which Jain women view their own place in the tradition, and the ways in which they are instrumental in the construction of Jain identity and society, has been greatly enhanced by the research of M. Whitney Kelting (1999, 2001a, 2001b). Kelting's work provides for Jainism the sort of radical rethinking of inherited androcentric models that feminist scholarship has generated throughout the field of religious studies. In addition, Madhurina Shah of the University of Maryland is writing what promises to be an insightful dissertation on contemporary Jain women's autobiographical oral narratives.
The study of Jain women is incomplete without the study of the many Jain female mendicants. Today female mendicants outnumber male mendicants by a significant percentage, and textual sources indicate that this is by no means a new phenomenon. Given the relative lack of women religious "professionals" in the Hindu tradition, and the well-known fate of the Buddhist nuns, this persistence of Jain female mendicancy is remarkable. It is all the more remarkable when one considers that Jain theology has always been markedly misogynist, even in the debate over the potential of women to achieve liberation, as recently shown in excellent detail by Padmanabh Jaini (1991).
Jaini's philosophical study can be supplemented by several excellent historical and fieldwork studies. Robert Zydenbos (1987) explores the portrayal