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Jaina Community-A Social Survey
and 73 are following joint family system. The number of persons per joint family varies from 3 to 69 and it seems, from available figures, that the average number of persons per joint family is more in south India than in other parts. The joint family is necessarily joint in property but not in residence. Out of the 73 joint families, there are only 32 whose members stay together. In such families, it is reported that there are, in some cases, as many as 25,34, 40, 60 and 69 members living under one roof. There are also joint families the members of which do not reside at one place but are spread usually at two or four places. In general it can be stated that the members of joint families from Gujarātha are spread at different distant places. Thus the members of a joint family from Gujarātha are found at places like Bombay, Karachi, Kanpur and Rajkot; Patan and Rangoon; Okha, Dhoraji, Jamnagar and Mithapur; Dhangdhra, Jafarabad and Poona; and Bombay, Baroda and Kolhapur. In other provinces the members of a joint family are ordinarily found at near places like Jaipur and Agra; Yavatamal and Amraoti; Satara and Sangli: Sholapur and Bombay; Gadag and Belgaum; and Dharwar and Bailhongal. This is due to the fact that the Jainas from Gujarātha are adventurous so far as commercial activities are concerned and hence the members of one joint family reside at different places for commercial purposes. On the contraiy it will be seen from the replies that the members of not even a single joint family from South India live at two places. Further, the Jaina joint family is not invariably joint in worship. When the parties to the marital union belong to the same sect or sub-sect, the family is necessarily joint in worship and the number of such families is greater. But there are cases where the religious afiliations of parties to the marital union are different. Especially among Osavālas, Srimālis and Poravādas we come across a Śvetāmbara Sthānakavāsi wife and a Vaishnavite or saivite or a Svetāmbara Terāpanthi or a Śvetāmbara mūrtipüjaka husband. In such cases it is reported that any one may follow the faith which appeals to him or her most, or which is desired by the husband. In these circumstances the family cannot remain joint in worship. But we have already noted that there is a growing tendency nowadays to observe religious endogamy and hence the feature of jointness in worship will in future appear in all joint families.
