Notes on Modern Jainism

Author(s): Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publisher: Oxford

Page 59

JAINA LAY ADHEREXTS.
47
Widow
and a man who does so is not considered quite respectable by his fellow castemen.*
The Digambara, as we have already seen, disapprove of remarriage during the life-time of the wife.
All three sects of Jaina unite in forbidding widow remarriage. They give as a reason that one who has been freed
from worldly ties should not seek to form
them again; but this reason surely Remarriage.
applies just as strongly to the case of men ; nevertheless all sects allow widowers to remarry.t
There is, however, one small subsect of the Digambara who permit their widows to remarry and in consequence are much despised by their fellow Jaina. Unfortunately ail over India it is considered a sign of good social standing for a caste to disallow widow remarriage.
It is not a Jaina custom to keep women in seclusion, but the practise has been adopted by them as a protection,
and also as a sign of good social position, Purdah.
wherever Mahommedan influence is specially strong.
The three sects all permit women to go to their several conferences, and have a Ladies' Day for them.
* A Sthānakavāsi Jaina, who thus remarried at Morvi, was recently
severely censured by his sect. + They say that this is because the number of women is twenty
seven times as great as that of men ; when told that the census absolutely contradicts these figures (since in India for every 1000 males only 963 females are born ) they reply : “Oh yes, it isn't true, it's only a reason !!"