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Peter Flügel, Jain Monastic Life
391
Summary On the basis of a sample of 496 mendicants of the Terāpanth Svetāmbara Jain order in the years 2001-3, a number of ethnographic observations and theories on Jain ascetics could be tested, albeit only for few questions in a statistically representative way due to uneven response patterns. A socio-demographic analysis showed that the Terāpanth mendicants are largely recruited from lower middle class Osvāl business families in the villages and small towns of the Churu, Bikaner and Nagaur districts of Rajasthan. The pivotal families are long-term followers of the Terāpanth and often have more than one initiated family member in the order. Nowadays, the majority of the mendicants are unmarried females who renounce of their own accord, primarily because their conservative families do not offer them any other alternative to marriage, and because of their familiarity with Jain values and pre-established links with the well organised Terāpanth order which offers unique educational opportunities for women in a traditional social context. With regard to the rural background, the findings resonate with Spiro's (1970) observations on Therāvada Buddhist monks in Burma. However, the families of Terāpanth Jain renouncers are more urbanized and of higher social and economic standing than those of the Buddhist monks in Burma. There are no significant material reasons for renunciation, and no one is forced to enter mendicancy. Goonasekera (1986) offered a psychoanalytical interpretation of Terāpanth Jain patterns of renunciation, but overlooked the psychological significance of experiences of death and suffering for female renouncers in particular. By contrast, one of the main findings of this study is that social and organisational factors, such as the pre-monastic educational institutions of the Terapanth founded in 1949 and 1980, have a strong influence on initiation patterns, gender relations, geographical spheres of influence, the division of labour and the social integration of the order.
Muni Navaratnamal in Lädnum 2000
