Jainism

Jainism, along with Hinduism and Buddhism, is one of the three most ancient Indian religious traditions still in existence. While sharing many of the concepts of Hinduism and Buddhism because of a common cultural and linguistic heritage, the Jain tradition evolved independently. The term Jainism is derived from the Sanskrit verb ji, which means to conquer. It is a reference to the battles that Jain monks and nuns must fight against corporeal passions and senses to obtain enlightenment and purity of soul. The few noted individuals who have achieved enlightenment are called Jina, which means Conqueror. The tradition’s monastic and lay adherents are called Jain, Followers of the Conquerors, or Jaina. This term replaced a more ancient designation, Nirgrantha, meaning Bondless, which originally applied only to monks and nuns (renunciants). Jainism has been confined largely to India, although the recent migration of Indians to other, predominantly English-speaking countries has spread its practice throughout the world. It is estimated that there are more than six million Jains, the majority of whom continue to reside in India.

Despite the belief that no one can achieve liberation in this corrupt time and place, the mission of Jainism is the complete perfection and purification of the soul. This can occur only when the soul attains an eternal state of liberation, called moksha, from physical bodies. Liberation of the soul is impeded by the accumulation of karma, particles generated by a person’s actions, that attach themselves to the soul and entrap it in physical bodies through a series of rebirths. Jain monks and nuns do not, therefore, pursue immediate enlightenment, but through the disciplined and meritorious practice of nonviolence they lay the groundwork for rebirth that will bring them nearer to achieving an enlightened state. It is necessary to understand Jain conceptions of reality to learn how the Jains attempt to overcome barriers to enlightenment.

Time, according to the Jains, is eternal and formless. It is understood as a wheel with twelve spokes, called ara, which represent ages. Six of these ara form an ascending arc and six form a descending ara. In the ascending arc, or utsarpini, humans progress in knowledge, age, stature, and contentment. In the descending arc, or avasarpini, these positive attributes and attainments deteriorate. The two cycles join together in a single rotation of the wheel of time, which is known as a kalpa. Cycles repeat themselves without a beginning or an end.

The Jain world is eternal and uncreated. Its constituent elements, the five fundamental building blocks of reality, called astikayas, are (1) soul, (2) matter, (3) space, (4) the principles of motion, and (5) the arrest of motion. Jains are divided into two major sects; the Digambara (meaning sky clad) sect and the Svetambara (meaning white clad) sect. Adherents of Digambara believe that there is a sixth substance, time. These five or six elements are eternal and indestructible, but their manifestation changes constantly. They are either arising, stabile, or diminishing. Based on this model of reality, Jainism purports to provide a more realistic analysis of the world and its complexities than Hinduism or Buddhism.

Jains divide the inhabited universe into five parts. The lower world, adholoka, is subdivided into seven tiers of hells, each of which is darker and more painful than the one above it. The middle world, madhyaloka, is comprised a vast number of concentric continents separated by seas. At the center lies the continent of Jambudvipa. Human beings inhabit Jambudvipa, the second continent surrounding Jambudvipa, as well as half of the third. The focus of Jainists is Jambudvipa, the only continent where it is possible for the soul to achieve liberation. The celestial world, urdhvaloka, contains two categories of heaven. One is for the souls of those who may or may not have entered the Jain path. The second is for those who have progressed far along the path to emancipation. At the apex of the occupied universe is the siddhashila, the crescent-shaped habitation of liberated souls, or siddhas.

Jain reality features two components, jiva (soul, or living substance) and ajiva (nonsoul, or inanimate substance). Ajiva is further divided into two categories: unthinking material entities and unthinking nonmaterial entities. Basic characteristics of jiva are consciousness (chetana), bliss (sukha), and energy (virya). In its pure state, jiva possesses these qualities limitlessly. The souls, infinite in number, are divisible in their embodied state into two main classes, immobile and mobile according to the number of sense organs possessed by the body they inhabit. The first group consists of souls inhabiting infinitesimally small particles of earth, water, fire, and air, as well as the vegetable kingdom which only possesses the sense of touch. The second group consists of souls that inhabit bodies that have two to five sense organs. The universe is also populated with an infinite number of diminutive beings called nigodas. Some of these are slowly evolving, but most are incapable of emerging from their arrested states of development.

Formless and sexless, jiva cannot be directly perceived by the senses. Like the universe, it is without a point of ultimate origin or end. While not all-pervasive, it can, by contraction or expansion, occupy varying amounts of space. Jiva can expand or contract to fill whatever body it occupies. The soul assumes the exact dimensions of the body it occupies, but it is not identical with that body. The same soul can, therefore, occupy the body of an ant or of an elephant. Upon the death of a body, jiva maintains the form of the last physical body that housed it.

Matter (pudgala) has the characteristics of touch, taste, smell, and color but lacks consciousness. The smallest unit of matter is the atom (paramanu). Heat, light, and shade are all forms of fine matter. The unthinking nonmaterial substances are space, time, and the principles of motion and the arrest of motion. Pudgala are always pure and are not subject to defilement. The principles of motion and its arrest permeate the universe but cannot exist independently of matter.

The fundamental tenet of Jain doctrine is that all phenomena are linked in a universal chain of cause and effect. Every event has a definite cause. By nature, every soul is pure and possesses infinite knowledge, bliss, and power. These faculties, however, are restricted throughout time by a soul’s contact with matter. This matter, which produces the chain of cause and effect, of birth and death, is called karma. Jainist believe that karma is an atomic substance, not a process as it is in Hinduism and Buddhism. To be free from the shackles of karma, a person must avoid the accretion of new karma and eliminate those that have already been acquired.

Karmic particles are acquired as the result of intentional actions motivated by the passions, though the very earliest Jain teachings on this subject claimed that any action, even if it was unintentional, attracted karma. Acquired karmas can be annihilated through a process called nirjara (wearing away), which includes fasting, restricting diet, controlling taste, retreating to isolated places, mortifications of the body, atonement for and the expiation of sins, modest thought and behavior, service, study, meditation, and self-renunciation. Nirjara is the intentional and calculated cessation of every passionate act. Because of karma, a soul is imprisoned in a succession of bodies and passes through various stages of spiritual development before it can become freed from karmic bondage. These stages of development, known as gunasthanas, involve progressive manifestations of the faculties of knowledge and power that are innate to souls and lead to a decrease in sinfulness and an increase in purity.

In Jain thought, the four stages of perception (observation, the will to recognize, determination, and impression) enable subjective cognition, or matijnana. Matijnana is the first of five types of knowledge (jnana). The second type, shrutajnana, is derived from scriptural knowledge and general information. Both are based on external conditions perceived by the senses. There are three types of immediate knowledge; avadhi (supersensory perception), manahparyaya (reading the thoughts of others), and kevala (omniscience). Kevala is necessarily accompanied by freedom from karmic obstruction and by direct experience of the soul’s pure form uncompromised by any attachment to matter. Omniscience, the principal attribute of a liberated jiva, is emblematic of its purity. A fully liberated soul, such as a Tirthankara, is called a kevalin (possessor of omniscience). Not all kevalins are Tirthankaras. Becoming a Tirthankara requires the development of a particular type of karmic destiny.

For the Jains all knowledge that falls short of omniscience is flawed. Reality is characterized by arising, change, and decay, rather than by simple permanence as is the case for the Hindus or impermanence as is the case for the Buddhists. The Jains developed an epistemological system based on seven perspectives (naya). This system, anekantavada, which means the many-pointed doctrine, acknowledges the provisional nature of temporal knowledge. To gain some approximation to reality, a judgment must be framed in accordance with all seven naya. According to Jainism, yoga, the ascetic physical and meditative discipline of the monk, is the means to attain the omniscience that leads to liberation, or moksha. Yoga is the cultivation of a true knowledge of reality, faith in the teachings of the Tirthankaras, and pure conduct. Yoga is intimately connected to the Three Jewels (ratnatraya) of right knowledge (samyagjnana), right faith (samyagdarshana), and right practice (samyakcharitra).

The Three Jewels constitute the basis of Jain doctrine and ethics. Right knowledge, faith, and practice must be cultivated together. None can exist in the absence of the others. Right faith leads to calmness or tranquility, detachment, kindness, and the renunciation of pride of birth, beauty, wealth, scholarship, prowess, and fame. Right faith leads to perfection only when followed by right practice. There can be no virtuous conduct without right knowledge, which allows Jains to distinguish between the self and the non-self. Knowledge without faith and conduct is futile, analogous to the Christian teaching that “faith without works is dead.” Without purification of mind, ascetic practices are merely bodily torture. Right practice is consequently a spontaneous, and not a forced mechanical procedure. The attainment of right practice is gradual, and a layperson can exercise only partial self-control. Renunciants, monks and nuns, can observe more comprehensive rules of conduct.

Violence in thought, then, is the greater and subtler form of violence because it arises from ideas of attachment and aversion, grounded in passionate states, which result from negligence or lack of care in behavior. Jainism enjoins avoidance of all forms of injury, whether committed by body, mind, or speech, and subscribes emphatically to the teaching that “nonviolence is the highest form of religious practice.” For Jains, this principle, which manifests itself most obviously in the form of vegetarianism, is the single most important component of their tradition’s message. Notable in this connection is the friendship between the Jain layman Raychandrabhai Mehta and Mohandas Gandhi, who considered his interactions with Mehta to have been important in formulating his own ideas on the use of nonviolence as a political tactic.

Shvetambara monks are allowed to retain a few possessions such as a robe, an alms bowl, a whisk broom, and a mukhavastrika (a piece of cloth held over the mouth to protect against the ingestion of small insects), which are presented by a senior monk at the time of initiation. For the non-image-worshipping Sthanakavasis and the Terapanthis, the mukhavastrika must be worn at all times. After initiation a monk must adhere to the “great vows” (mahavratas) to avoid injuring any life-form, lying, stealing, having sexual intercourse, or accepting personal possessions. To help him keep his vows, a monk’s life is carefully regulated in all details by specific ordinances and by the oversight of his superiors. For example, to help him observe the vow of nonviolence, a monk may not take his simple, vegetarian meals after dark, because to do so would increase the possibility of harming insects that might be attracted to the food. In addition, drinking water must first be boiled to ensure that there are no life-forms in it. Monks are expected to suffer with equanimity hardships imposed by the weather, geographic terrain, travel, or physical abuse; however, exceptions are allowed in emergencies, since a monk who survives a calamity can purify himself by confession and by practicing even more rigorous austerities.

Digambara monks take the same great vows as the Shvetambara, but, in acknowledgment of a much more intense interpretation of the vow of owning nothing, advanced Digambara monks remain naked, while lower-grade Digambara monks wear a loincloth and keep with them one piece of cloth not more than 1.5 yards (1.4 metres) long. Digambara monks use a peacock-feather duster to sweep the ground where they walk to avoid injuring any life-forms and drink water from a gourd. They beg for their only meal of the day using the cupped palms of their hand as an alms bowl. They regard their interpretation of the Jain monastic vocation as more in accord with the ancient model than that followed by the Shvetambaras.

All Jain renunciants must exercise the three guptis (care in thought, speech, and action) and the five samitis (types of vigilance over conduct). Essential to regular monastic ritual are the six obligatory actions (avashyaka), practiced daily and at important times of the ritual calendar: equanimity (samayika, a form of contemplative activity, which, in theory operates throughout the monk’s entire career); praise of the Tirthankaras; obeisance to the Tirthankaras, teachers, and scriptures; confession; resolution to avoid sinful activities; and “abandonment of the body” (standing or sitting in a meditative posture).

The type of austerities in which a monk engages, the length of time he practices them, and their severity are carefully regulated by his preceptor, who takes into account the monk’s spiritual development, his capacity to withstand the austerities, and his ability to understand how they help further his spiritual progress. The theoretical culmination of a monk’s ascetic rigors is the act of sallekhana, in which he lies on one side on a bed of thorny grass and ceases to move or eat. This act of ritual starvation is the monk’s ultimate act of nonattendance, by which he lets go of the body for the sake of his soul. Jain ideology views this as the ultimate act of self-control and triumph over the passions, rather than simply as suicide. While widely followed in ancient and medieval times, sallekhana is much less common today.

Both the Shvetambaras and Digambaras allow the initiation of nuns, and among the Shvetambaras nuns outnumber monks by a ratio of approximately three to one. Nevertheless, the status of Jain nuns is less prestigious than that of monks, to whom they are obliged by convention and textual stipulation to defer, despite the fact that these nuns are often women of great learning and spiritual attainment. In Digambara Jainism, nuns, who wear robes, accept the necessity of being reborn as men before they can advance significantly on the ascetic path.

While Jain literature from earliest times emphasizes the place of the monk and his concerns, it is clear that almost from the religion’s outset the majority of Jains have been laypersons who support the community of renunciants. The medieval period was a time of particularly intense reflection by both Shvetambara and Digambara monks on the role of the laity. Many treatises discussing the layman’s religious behaviour and vows were produced between the 5th and 17th century. According to these writings, lay behaviour should mirror the ascetic “great vows.” Jain doctrine, however, holds that while the ascetic path can lead to the destruction (nirjara) of karma, the lay path allows only for the warding off (samvara) of new karma and thus does not radically alter an individual’s karmic status.

The layman (Jainism’s focus is invariably upon the male) is enjoined to observe eight basic rules of behavior, which vary but usually include the avoidance of night eating, as well as a diet that excludes meat, wine, honey, and types of fruits and roots deemed to harbor life-forms. There are also 12 vows to be taken: five anuvratas (“little vows”), three gunavratas, and four shikshavratas. The anuvratas are vows to abstain from violence, falsehood, and stealing; to be content with one’s own wife; and to limit one’s possessions. The other vows are supplementary and meant to strengthen and protect the anuvratas. They involve avoidance of unnecessary travel, of harmful activities, and of the pursuit of pleasure; fasting and control of diet; offering gifts and service to monks, the poor, and fellow believers; and voluntary death if the observance of the major vows proves impossible.

Lay people are further enjoined to perform the six “obligatory actions” at regular intervals, especially the samayika, a meditative and renunciatory ritual of limited duration. This ritual is intended to strengthen the resolve to pursue the spiritual discipline of Jain dharma (moral virtue) and is thought to bring the lay votary close to the demands required of an ascetic. It may be performed at home, in a temple, in a fasting hall, or before a monk.

Dating from early in the history of Jainism are eleven stages of a layman’s spiritual progress, or pratima (“statue”). Medieval writers conceived pratima as a ladder leading to higher stages of spiritual development. The last two stages lead logically to renunciation of the world and assumption of the ascetic life.

It was natural for monastic legislators to portray the careers of idealized lay people as a preparatory stage to the rigors of ascetic life, but for Jain lay life to have meaning it need not necessarily culminate in initiation as a monk. With its careful rules about food, its regular ceremonies and cultural traditions, Jainism provides the laity a rounded social world. Typically, Jain lay life is characterized by strict vegetarianism, disciplined business or professional activity, and responsible conduct of family affairs with a view to establishing a sound social reputation. Lay Jains believe that pious activity, including fasting and almsgiving, and especially the practice of nonviolence, enables an individual not only to advance a little further along the path to final liberation but to improve his current material situation. As a result, there is a stark contrast between the great prosperity of the Jain lay community and the austere self-denial of the monks and nuns it supports.

Until very recently Jainism had not developed any distinctive life-cycle rituals for events such as birth and marriage, although in the 9th century the Digambara monk Jinasena attempted to legislate in this area. In general, practice has tended to conform to prevailing local custom, provided this does not infringe on basic Jain principles.

Temple worship is mentioned in early texts that describe gods paying homage to images and relics of Tirthankaras in heavenly eternal shrines. While Mahavira himself appears to have made no statement regarding image veneration, it quickly became a vital part of the Jain tradition. Numerous images of Tirthankaras in the sitting and standing postures dating from the early Common Era have been uncovered in excavations of a Jain stupa, or funerary monument, at Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. The earliest images of Tirthankaras are all nude and distinguished by carved inscriptions of their names on the pedestals. By the 5th century, symbols specific to each Tirthankara (for example, a lion for Mahavira) began to appear. The practice of associating one of the twenty-four shasanadevatas (doctrine goddesses) with images of individual Tirthankaras began in the 9th century. Some of these goddesses, such as Ambika (Little Mother), who is associated with the Tirthankara Arishtanemi, continue to have great importance for the Jain devotee. The images are generally located near the entrance to Jain temples and can be propitiated for aid in worldly matters.

Closely associated with the obligatory rites of the laity, worship (puja) can be made to all liberated souls, to monks, and to the scriptures. The focus for most image-venerating Jains (murtipujaka) is the icon of the Tirthankara located in the central shrine room of the temple or, alternatively, in a domestic shrine. Temples also house subsidiary Tirthankara images. Although Tirthankaras remain unaffected by offerings and worship and cannot, as individuals who are liberated from rebirth, respond in any way, such devotional actions serve as a form of meditative discipline. Daily worship includes hymns of praise and prayers, the recitation of sacred formulas and the names of the Tirthankaras, and idol veneration—bathing the image and making offerings to it of flowers, fruit, and rice. Shvetambaras also decorate images with clothing and ornaments. A long-standing debate within both Jain communities concerns the relative value of external acts of worship and internalized acts of mental discipline and meditation. Monks and nuns of all sects are prohibited from displays of physical worship.

Important days in the Jain calendar are called parvan, and on these days religious observances, such as structured periods of fasting and festivals, take place. The principal Jain festivals can generally be connected with the five major events in the life of each Tirthankara: descent into his mother’s womb, birth, renunciation, attainment of omniscience, and final emancipation.

The Jain calendar includes many festivals. Among them is the Shvetambara fasting ceremony, oli, which is celebrated for nine days twice a year (in March/April and September/October) and which corresponds to the mythical celestial worship of the images of the Tirthankaras. The most significant time of the Jain ritual year, however, is the four-month period, generally running from late July to early November, when monks and nuns abandon the wandering life and live in the midst of lay communities. For Shvetambaras, the single most important festival, Paryushana, occurs in the month of Bhadrapada (August–September). Paryushana (Abiding) designates, on the one hand, pacification by forgiving and service with wholehearted effort and devotion and, on the other, staying at one place for the monsoon season. The festival is characterized by fasting, preaching, and scriptural recitation. On its last day, Samvatsari (Annual), alms are distributed to the poor, and a Jina image is ceremonially paraded through the streets. A communal confession is performed by the laity, and letters are sent asking for forgiveness and the removal of all ill feelings about conscious or unconscious misdeeds during the past year. The equivalent Digambara festival is called Dashalakshanaparvan (Observance Day of the Ten Religious Qualities) and centers on the public display of an important text, the Tattvartha-sutra.

On the full-moon day of the month of Karttika (October/November), at the same time that Hindus celebrate Diwali (the festival of lights), Jains commemorate the nirvana (final liberation, literally meaning “becoming extinguished”) of Mahavira by lighting lamps. Another important Shvetambara ceremony, Jnanapanchami (literally “Knowledge Fifth,” where “Fifth” signifies a date), occurs five days later and is celebrated with temple worship and with reverence of the scriptures. The equivalent Digambara festival takes place in May–June. Mahavira Jayanti, the birthday of Mahavira, is celebrated by both sects in early April with public processions.

The most famous of all Jain festivals, Mastakabhisheka (Head Anointment), is performed every twelve years at the Digambara sacred complex at Shravanabelagola (White Lake of the Ascetics) in Karnataka state. In this ceremony the 57-foot-high statue of Bahubali is anointed from above with a variety of substances (water, milk, flowers, etc.) in the presence of an audience that can approach one million.

Pilgrimage, viewed as a particularly meritorious activity, is popular among renunciants and laity alike. Places of pilgrimage were created during the medieval period at sites marking the principal events in the lives of Tirthankaras, some of which were destroyed during the Muslim invasions, which started in the 8th century. Parasnath Hill and Rajgir in Bihar state and Shatrunjaya and Girnar hills on the Kathiawar Peninsula are among such important ancient pilgrimage sites. Other shrines that have become pilgrimage destinations are Shravanabelagola in Karnataka state, Mounts Abu and Kesariaji in Rajasthan state, and Antariksha Parshvanatha in Akola district of Maharashtra. For those unable to go on pilgrimage to the most famous sites, it is possible to worship their depictions in local temples. Regional networks of lesser shrines mirror the great pilgrimage sites.

Jain canonical scriptures do not belong to a single period, nor is any text free from later revision or additions. The sacred literature, transmitted orally, was first systematized in a council at Patna about the end of the 4th century BCE, of which little can be said, and again in two later councils at Mathura (early 3rd century CE) and Valabhi. The fourth and last council, at Valabhi in the mid-5th century, is considered the source of the existing Shvetambara canon, though some commentators insist that the present version comes from the Mathura council.

The original, unadulterated teachings of the Tirthankaras, the Purvas, are said to have been contained in fourteen ancient or “prior” (purva) texts, which are now lost. Shvetambaras and Digambaras agree that a time will come when the teachings of the Tirthankaras will be completely lost; Jainism will then disappear from the earth and reappear at an appropriate point in the next time cycle (kalpa). The two sects disagree, however, about the extent to which the corruption and loss of the Tirthankaras’ teachings has already occurred. Consequently, the texts for each sect differ.

The Shvetambaras embrace an extensive agama (Sanskrit for tradition or received teachings) as the repository of their tradition. Based upon what are believed to be discourses by Mahavira that were compiled by his disciples, this canon preserves his teachings in an imperfect way, since it has been subject to both interpolation and loss throughout the ages. The number of texts considered to make up the Shvetambara canon has varied over time and by monastic group. Largely through the influence of the 19th-century Austrian scholar Johann Georg Bühler, however, Western scholars have fixed the number of texts in this canon at forty-five, divided into six groups: the eleven Angas (meaning parts; originally there were twelve, but one, the Drishtivada, has been lost), twelve Upangas (subsidiary texts), four Mula-sutras (basic texts), six Cheda-sutras (concerned with discipline), two Chulika-sutras (appendix texts), and ten Prakirnakas (mixed, assorted texts). The Angas contain several dialogues, mainly between Mahavira and his disciple Indrabhuti Gautama, presumably recorded by the disciple Sudharman, who transmitted the teachings to his own disciples.

In addition to their canons and commentaries, the Shvetambara and Digambara traditions have produced a voluminous body of literature, written in several languages, in the areas of philosophy, poetry, drama, grammar, music, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, astrology, and architecture. In Tamil the epics Chilappatikaram and Jivikachintamani, which are written from a Jain perspective, are important works of early postclassical Tamil literature. Jain authors were also an important formative influence on Kannada literature. The Jain lay poet Pampa’s Adipurana (another text describing the lives of Rishabha, Bahubali, and Bharata) is the earliest extant piece of mahakavya (high poetic) Kannada literature. Jains were similarly influential in the Prakrit languages, Apabhramsha, Old Gujarati, and, later, Sanskrit. A particular forte of Jain writers was narrative, through which they promoted the religion’s ideals. A notable example of this is the huge Sanskrit novel “The Story of Upamiti’s Series of Existences” by the 10th-century Shvetambara monk Siddharshi.

Of particular importance, both as a systemization of the early Jain worldview and as an authoritative basis of later philosophical commentary, is the Tattvartha-sutra of Umasvati, whose work is claimed by both the Digambara and Umasvamin communities. Composed early in the Common Era, the Tattvartha-sutra was the first Jain philosophical work in Sanskrit to address logic, epistemology, ontology, ethics, cosmography, and cosmogony. Digambaras also value the Prakrit works of Kundakunda (circa 2nd century, though perhaps later), including the Pravachanasara (on ethics), the Samayasara (on the essence of doctrine), the Niyamasara (on Jain monastic discipline), and the six Prabhritas (or Chapters) on various religious topics. Kundakunda’s writings are distinguished by their use of a two-perspective (naya) model by which all outward aspects of Jain practice are subordinated to an inner, spiritual interpretation.

The details of Jain doctrine did not change much throughout history, and no major philosophical disagreements exercised Jain intellectuals. The main concerns of the medieval period were to ensure that scriptural statements were compatible with logic and to controvert rival claims of the Hindus and the Buddhists. Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism share many key concepts derived from the Sanskrit language and dialects that have enabled them to refine their religious debates. For example, all three traditions share a concept of karma as actions by individuals that determine their future births, yet each has attached unique connotations to it. This is also true with terms such as dharma (often translated as duty, righteousness, or religious path), yoga (ascetic discipline), and yajna (sacrifice, or worship). This Sanskritic discourse has shaped the religious and philosophical speculations and the polemics of all three of these traditions.

The same circumstance occurs in the ritual and literature of each religion. For example, the abhiseka, or head-anointing ritual, has had great significance in all three religions. The best-known example of this ritual is the one performed every twelve to fourteen years on the statue of Bahubali at the Jain pilgrimage site at Shravanabelagola. The structure of this ritual is similar in each religious context, but it has a unique meaning in each tradition. In the literary sphere, each tradition developed an extensive corpus of canonical and commentarial literature, and each has developed a body of narrative literature. For example, so great was the influence of the story of Rama in the classical Hindu Ramayana that the Buddhists and Jains felt obliged to retell the story in their own terms. Jain literature includes sixteen different versions of this story in Sanskrit and Prakrit.

Muslim influence on Jainism is also evident. It has been hypothesized that the concept of ashatanas (activities that are unsuitable or indecent in a temple) reveals a notion of the sanctity of the temple that recalls Muslim barakah (holiness) more than any traditional Jain attitude. The most obvious Islamic influence is in the repudiation of image worship by the Shvetambara Lonkasaha sect. Jain influence at the Mughal court of Akbar is a bright chapter in Jain history. Akbar honoured Hiravijaya Suri, then the leader of the Shvetambara Tapa Gaccha. His disciples and other monks gained the respect of the Mughal emperors Jahāngīr and Shah Jahān and even the Muslim chauvinist Aurangzeb. Moreover, Akbar prohibited animal slaughter near important Jain sites during the Paryushana festival. Jahāngīr also issued decrees for the protection of Shatrunjaya, and Aurangzeb recognized Jain proprietary rights over Mount Shatrunjaya. Mughal painting, influential in different schools of Indian painting, also influenced Jain miniature painting.