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Hindus. The caste system among the Jainas has been transmuted into competitive endogamous status groups.
Social organization of Jainism has also been characterized by the duality of ethic or dual value system (e.g., ascetics and householders, individualism and families, absolutism and relativism, in-group and out-group etc.) and its integration into a single continuum. This duality can be seen at many levels of Jaina philosophy, religion and social life which perhaps helps them in adjusting with the majority community on the one hand and in maintaining their own separate identity on the other. Segmental orientation characterized by out-group conflict is another feature of the Jaina community that obtained over the centuries in order to maintain its distinct religious identity. Although essentially a patriarchal religion, ironically women play an important role in the social reproduction of the Jaina community and its constituent institutions.
Jainas sense of tolerance and peaceful co-existence with other communities can be related to their epistemological doctrine of relative pluralism (nayavāda) and which states the manifoldness (anekanta) of reality and knowledge. It states that reality can be comprehended from a number of standpoints, which have been classified into seven types known as saptabharigi-naya (sevenfold stand-point). This doctrine is known as syādvāda (doctrine of "may be"). In short, the doctrines of anekānta and syādvāda constitute the distinguishing features of Jainism. These doctrines are very well reflected in the Jainas' definition and perception of social reality. Not surprisingly, in relation to the wider Hindu society the attitude of the Jainas has been characterized by "unobtrusiveness" and even assimilation.
1.6 Historiography
There is considerable amount of literature on the Jaina philosophy, religion and literature. The social anthropological and sociological studies on the Jaina community, however, continue to remain scarce. Max Weber's Religion of India (1958) contained only half-achapter on Jainism entitled "Heterodox Soteriology of the Cultured Professional Monks" which provides significant sociological insight into the structure and functioning of the Jainal community and religion. However, his work remained virtually unknown to the world until its translation into English in 1950s, meanwhile in the early 1950s an Indian sociologist V.A. Sangave had published a major work on the Jainas that was mainly based on scriptural
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