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BOOK REVIEW
21
Actions of Ritual : A Theory of Ritual illustrated by the Jain Rite of Worship (Oxford, 1994). The present work is based on the author's fieldwork conducted between 1984 and 1990 in the city of Jaipur, where he lived as a family member amongst the Khartar and Tapa Gacchas households.
The book's eighteen chapters are divided into five parts containing information about and discussion of such diverse topics as Jaina doctrine; issues of Jaina identity and relations with the broader Hindu community; the ways a householder practises ascetic routines; interrelationships between the lay Jains and renouncers; and finally connections between riches and renunciation as celebrated through festivals such as Diwali.
This is a book rich in details, full of information about Jaina way of life and analyses. Throughout the text, through well-chosen words and finely crafted language, Laidlaw looks at his subject(s) sympathetically (quite different from the method employed by Mrs. Margaret Stevenson in her The Heart of Jainism, Oxford, 1915), often gathering his evidence by “lursingpeople into talking about them (selves)" (p. 76).
The focus of Laidlaw's study (an anthropologists's prerogative) is to describe how Jainism is practised in a defined community, in this case in an urban centre of north-west India, in the city of Jaipur (p.3).
4. Some of the notable studies on the Jains of Rajasthan are : C. Cottam
Ellis, The Jain merchant castes of Rajasthan : some aspects of the management of social identity in a market town', in M. Carrithers and C. Humphrey (eds), The Assembly of Listeners : Jains in Society (Cambridge, 1991, pp. 75-108; D.E. Haynes, 'From tribute to philanthrophy: the politics of gift giving in a western Indian city', Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 46 (1987), pp. 339-360; S. Holmstrom, Towards a Politics of Renunciation: Jain Women and Asceticism in Rajasthan', M.A. dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 1988; C. Humphrey, 'Fairs and miracles: at the boundaries of the Jain community in Rajasthan', in Carrithers and Humphrey, op.cit., pp. 201-225; K. C. Jain, Jainism in Rajasthan (Sholapur, 1963); S. Jain, 'A social anthropological study of Jainism in North India', B. Litt thesis, Oxford, 1971; J.H.M. Jones, Jain shopkeepers and moneylenders: rural informal credit networks in south Rajasthan', in Carrithers and Humphrey, op.cit., pp. 109-138; R. Mehta, 'Community, consciousness, and identity: a study of Jains in a village', M.A. thesis, University of Rajasthan, 1986; S. Phoolchandra, Jaipur (Khaniya) Tattvachara, 2 vols., (Jaipur, Pandit Todarmal Granthamala, 1967); J. Reynell, 'Honour, Nurture and Festivity: Aspects of Female Religiosity among Jain women in Jaipur', Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge, 1985; J. Reynell, 'Prestige, honour and the family: laywomen's religiosity amongs the Svetambar murtipujak Jains in Jaipur', Bulletin d'Etudes Indiennes, vol. 5 (1987), pp. 313-359; N.K. Singhi, ‘A study of Jains in a Rajasthani town', in Carrithers and Humphrey,
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