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Development & Impact of Jainism in India & Abroad
RELATED LITERATURE:
The paper is based on original and secondary work related to topic. Some articles related to the development of Jain community are also used for writing this article. Original sources related to Dakshin Bharat Jain Sabha and other institutions are also used. Some religious scripts and inscriptions are used to support the statement made by researcher.
PART II MAHARASHTRA: JAIN POPULATION:
Maharashtra is a state in the Western region of India. It is second most populist state after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India. Geographically, historically and according to political sentiment, Maharashtra has five main regions: Vidharbha (Nagpur and Amaravati), Marathwada (Aurangabad), Khandesh (Nashik), Desh and Konkan (Pune, Mumbai, Ratnagiri) (Wikipedia). Though the Jains have dispersed over the entire country and even abroad the maximum population (three-fourths of the total) is in the Western region of India i.e. Maharashtra, followed by Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, the remaining population being absorbed by Mysore, Uttar Pradesh and other states and territories in India. Statistically the above mentioned six states account for 90.52% and the rest cover 9.48% of the population of Jains (Sangave 1976:9-18).
Jains in Maharashtra are concentrated in the Hindu dominated areas; so naturally there was a great impact of Hindu tradition and customs on the Jain way of life (Sangave 1976:4-18). As per Census of India in 2001, 13, 01,843 are Jains among 9,68,78,627 total population of Maharashtra. Jain population from 1951 to 2001 increased from 3,37,598 to 13,01,843 (Patil 2010: 122-123). Maharashtra was ruled for a long time by the kings of Karnataka is proved by the inscriptions scattered throughout this region. Scholars are of the opinion that there are 300 Kannada inscriptions. In Maharashtra 180 are read and published so far. Among them 30 inscriptions are Jaina inscriptions. They are found in the districts of Osmanabad, Kolhapur, Beed, Sangli, South Solapur, and Mumbai museum. Chalukyas of Badami, Rashtrakutas, Chalukyas of Kalyan, Shiaharas, Kalachuris, and many sub-ordinates patronized Jainism in Maharashtra by constructing Basadis and making donations for the ascetics (Sutar and Patil: 2012: 41-51).
RELIGIOUS SECTS:
The Jain community has been divided into an unusually large number of castes and subcastes and sects. These groups are strictly endogamous. They hardly come into intimate contact with one another for religious purpose also. Jain castes and sub castes might have arisen due to internal quarrels and differences in customs and manners prevailing in different parts of country, like Hindus Jains have come to possess a large number of castes and many of them are named after the names of their original places (Sangave 1980:322-327).
MIGRATION OF JAINS TO MAHARASHTRA:
The Jains being commercial community are scattered over whole of India. Certain Jain castes were concentrated in particular areas. Shwetambars and Gujarathi Jain families migrated from other places or regions. The Srimalis, Poravadas and Hummadas have come from Gujarat,
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