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Is There A Popular Jainism ?*
ARVIND SHARMA
There seem to be three ways in which I could perform my role as a discussant. First, I could try to elaborate the various senses in which the term popular could be used in relation to Jainism and remark on the extent to which these senses have been covered in the discussion hitherto. For instance, one could maintain that "popular Jainism” refers to any or all of those aspects of Jainism : (1) which relate to the laity as distinguished from the monks ; (2) or which are non-canonical ; (3) or prevalent, may be uniquely, among Jain women; or deal with the feminine ; (4) or relate to magic ; (5) or show traces of Hindu influence or (6) of animism. Popular Jainism could also refer to (7) the incorporation of local elements in Jainism in its spread through India or (8) to the forms of Jainism practised by “weaker” segments of the Jaina community”.
A second strategy I could adopt would be to take up each paper and comment on it by turn. I have, however, decided to give up the first approach-that of explicating the senses of popular Jainism as too vague and the second-of commenting on individual papers as too specific. I have decided to play my role as a discussant by adopting a third strategy, a kind of a middle way that of responding with five general points to the material specifically presented here as a whole.
First Point
Many works on Jainism often associate "popular" Jainism with the influence of Hinduism upon Jainism. The Jains are seen as living amidst a "veritable sea of Hindu influence”, an influence particularly felt at the popular level. This leads me to ask the question : can one identify a case in reverse-of Jain influence on popular Hinduism ? If one could it would serve two ends : (i) it would strengthen the case for a "genuine" or "independent” or “autochthonous” or “autocephalous" popular Jainism and (ii) demonstrate that the traffic between Hinduism and Jainism at the popular level was not a one-way street.
Is there such an independent Jain "popular” figure ?
P. B. Desai, in his Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs thinks it to be the case with Padmavati, the sāsanadevatā associated
*Response to a panel on the above topic delivered at the 11th Annual Conference on South Asia at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
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