Jain Spirit 2004 10 No 20

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

Page 69

My host family's insistence that I deal with practical issues gave me a concrete focus. The purchase of saris, followed by the more difficult task of learning how to wear them, helped me to feel more part of the local environment, as did the purchase of a second-hand bicycle. This was consolidated by introducing myself to local academics at the University of Rajasthan. Several of the women lecturers were Jain and their insights helped me frame my initial research. Dr. Singhi, Head of Sociology and also a Jain, kindly mapped out the city and the various Jain communities. It was his
suggestion that I begin my research by visiting the Tapa Gacch temple in the Jauhri bazaar within the old walled city of Jaipur where the main Shvetambara temples and residences were located.
And so began the most enjoyable 15 months of discovery. Invitations to visit women steadily increased as my presence
became familiar in the Chaturmas preachings. Women welcomed me into their homes with generosity, making me feel like an honoured guest rather than an intrusive stranger. Over cups of delicious chai, they revealed the many
different ways in which religious practice gave meaning to their lives. Clearly, many women had a prodigious knowledge of the rich Jain story literature and one of my fondest memories is of the elegantly simple, cool and darkened room of an ancient haveli, where sitting cross-legged on a large white mattress I first heard the story of Menasundari and Shripal, told by the late Mrs. Phophalia, a woman of dignity, wisdom and a dry sense of humour. I learnt how women constructed the good reputation and specifically Jain identity of their families through practices ranging from meticulous preparation of food in accordance with the principle of ahimsa, to participation in preachings, colourful poojas during Chaturmas, pilgrimages to local shrines and long, complex fasts. Such practices challenged the conceptual division between the public world of men and the private world of women, popular in anthropology at the time.
प्रार. वाय. दुर्लभजी
R.V.Durabhj
CHAL
Women on pilgrimage to Jain temple at Malpura proceeding down Jaulin Bazaar, Jaipur.
accordance with English child-rearing practices.
Whilst purdah confined women to the home and temple, their religious activities and public reputation were clearly crucial to business and marriage alliances. At the same time daily practices of samayika and temple pooja
together with the thoughtful shaping of everyday activities in accordance with Jain principles of ahimsa and aparigraha gave women the opportunity to carve out quiet spaces of contemplation within busy days otherwise devoted to the care of children, elderly relatives and
husbands. Most striking was the sense of celebration and joy afforded to women by various religious rituals, providing occasions for both contemplative practice and conviviality.
There were other times when fieldwork was overwhelming. For me (I suffer from mild claustrophobia), sitting in a packed temple observing an abhishek ceremony and sweat pouring down my back with the temperature 110 degrees in the shade, was arduous. Frequently my own concepts of being in the world were challenged. Sleeping on a large mattress shared with all the women of the household on my visits to villages was an initial shock in terms of the English notions of private space. Yet that experience gave invaluable guidance many years later in standing firm against comments from well-meaning relatives when my baby daughter, hating to be separated at night, insisted on the comfort of a shared bed rather than confinement to her own room and cot in
WORSHIP
The generosity with which the Jain families in Jaipur shared their time, the ubiquitous hospitality whereby a visit was always accompanied by the gracious offering of refreshments made a lasting impression on me. It was with sadness that I bade farewell to my Jain friends in Jaipur, and maybe I should not have been surprised that my return to the muted light of autumnal England and the academic formality of Cambridge was
marked with a culture shock greater than I had experienced 15 months earlier on my arrival in India.
I have often mused whether people in my parents' town in Dorset, or even the more culturally diverse towns of Cambridge and Oxford, would have opened their doors to Indian researchers with the same generosity as I received. These and other inequalities underlying the anthropological enterprise have been at the centre of academic writing over the last twenty years. Maybe now the time is ripe for some of these inequalities to be reversed and for young students of Jain origin in the UK or USA to explore their Jain heritage through graduate research.
Dr Josephine Reynell, is a Deputy Director at the International Gender Studies Centre, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford and academic sponsor of Young Jain Students, Oxford.