Jain Spirit 1999 10 No 02

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 62

Scriptures on the Jain community
a sacred text that itself constitutes a vector of ritual authority and symbol (69-70). The potency of this model is displayed in particularly compelling fashion by reference to the various ways in which the bible is mediated to different Christian congregations (73-76).
The remainder of the first section of SAC is comprised of Folkert's reflections upon the history of the Jain tradition and the various institutional elements that have served to structure and maintain it. Chapter seven, published posthumously in 1989, is a study of the Victorian interpretation of the ancient religious site of Mathura in north-West India. Here Folkert starts by considering how nineteenth-century Western scholarship quickly formed the conclusion that the depiction within ancient Jain writings of a world of ascetic renunciation exclusively Jain monks at a community event defined the parameters of the religion. The question of the function of the stupa within early Jainism is still somewhat uncertain, and unfortunately Folkert never really
society and the often complex manner in which the lay and addresses it.
ascetic communities and the ideals bound up with them
interact, especially during the period of the monastic rainChapter eight of SAC is a helpful discussion of the term darsana
retreat. Here it might be said that Folkert's remarks now and a demonstration of how in Jainism it can mean both "system
seem slightly sketchy in the light of research published in and "faith'. Of particular value for an understanding of the
recent years (see John Cort's companion piece to this essay). development of Jain intellectual history, often portrayed as
Part one of SAC concludes with a splendidly evocative set of relatively static, is Folkert's pinpointing here of a dynamic
field notes and photographic illustrations relating to Folkert's involving 'a radical shift away from an analytical approach
observations of the celebration of the festival of Paryusan in dominated by karma to one that sought to begin with a set of
two northern Gujarati villages. This chapter, most helpfully categories and means of valid knowledge (pramana) (134). annotated by Cort, is surely worth its weight in gold to any
introductory course on Jainism. Chapters 10-12 focus upon the role of the subject (gaccha) and the monk in the formation of Svetambara Jain history and The second part of SAC, amounting to almost 200
pages, is culled from Folkert's dissertation on Jain modes Inside a Jain temple
of representing non-lain intellectual positions. 2
as
Paul Dundas is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sanskrit, University of Edinburgh. He is author of 'The Jains', a highly acclaimed text on all aspects of Jainism, published by Routledge in 1992, The First Edition is currently out of print, and he is working on a second edition. This is an edited extract of a review which was originally published in the Religious Studies Review, Volume 23 No.2 April 1997, pp113-110 under the title 'Recent Research on Jainism'.
Photos: Chandu Shah
October - December 1999. Jain Spirit 61