Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
Jaina world and the rise of the anti-Bhattāraka or puritanical Terahapantha or Suddhāmnāya sect among the Digambaras and the Terāpantha sect of the Śthānakavāsī sect of the Śvetāmbaras. It may have been largely due to these factors that the Jaina community succeeded in surviving and keeping the flame of faith burning in those perilous time. From about the beginning of the 19th centurytill the achievement of independence (in 1947) is the period of British rule in India, which was characterised by a gradual establishment of peace and order and the rule of law, a general re-awakening and expansion of education, social and religious reform, growth of democratic institutions and the idea of nationalism, and lastly the struggle for freedom from foreign rule, all of which had their due impact on the Jaina coinmunity. Since the beginning of the mediaeval period (circa 12th century) till the first quarter of the present century, the community had been continuously losing in numbers, so that which had been once for long a major religious group of the subcontinent was reduced to a small minority with a bare strength of some three million souls. Most of the Brāhmana, Ksatriya (Rajput), Kāyastha and Sūdra followers of Jainism became converts to other faiths under the influence of Christian missions, Muslim Tabligh, the Ārya Samāja movement, or the Vaisnava, Vīrasaiva and other sectarian preachers.
Nevertheless, Jainism is still diffused throughout the length and breadth of the Indian Union, and there is hardly any city, big town or trade centre where the Jainas are not to be found. They have duly benefited from the general re-awakening of modern times, and, in the freedom struggle, have made their contribution out of all proportion to their numerical strength, actively and zealously participating in the country's successful effort for the achievement of independence from British rule. In literacy and education they have always been ahead of most of the other communities and have taken full advantage of