Jainism: An Introduction

265 Pages·2009·2.47 MB·English

by  Jeffery D. Long

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Jeffery DLong is Associate Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, and
Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, at Elizabethtown College,
Pennsylvania. He is the author of A Vision for Hinduism: Beyond Hindu
Nationalism,publishedbyI.B.Taurisin2006.
‘This highly readable book provides an excellent introduction to an
ancient and complex tradition that predates the birth of the Buddha.
TheauthorskilfullyexploresJaindoctrinesregardingthenatureofthe
soul and the observance of nonviolence, placing Jainism within the
contextofHinduismandBuddhism.Healsohighlightstheinfluencethat
Jainism had upon the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi. The book
correctsmisperceptionsthathavecharacterisedJainethicsasextreme,
and discusses how Jainism is being practised globally, including in the
USheartland.’–ChristopherKeyChapple,DoshiProfessorofIndicand
ComparativeTheology,LoyolaMarymountUniversity,LosAngeles
‘JefferyLong’sbookadmirablyaccomplishestwogoals.Thefirsthalfof
Jainism:AnIntroduction does exactly what his subtitle indicates. Long
provides a succinct and accurate overview of the history, beliefs and
practicesoftheJainsthatdrawsinanexcellentmanneruponthemost
recent scholarship. The second half of the book - in a fine example of
the practice of comparative theology and comparative philosophy of
religion–movesbeyonddescriptiontoengagewithwhatJainismhasto
say to anyone living on Planet Earth in the twenty-first century. In
particular, Long is concerned to explore what the Jain philosophical
doctrinesof“relativity”cancontributetothepressingproblemofhow
people respond to the fact of profound religious diversity. Jainism:An
Introduction will therefore be of interest to anyone interested in the
globalreligioushistoryofhumanity,andadditionallytoanyonestriving
toconstructamorallyresponsiblestanceonhowhumanscanlearnto
livetogetherinalltheirreligiousdifferences.Thebookwillalsobeafine
choiceforundergraduatestudentsinavarietyoffields,includingreligious
studies, south Asian studies, the history of religion and comparative
philosophy.’–JohnCort,ProfessorofAsianandComparativeReligions,
DenisonUniversity,andauthorofJainsintheWorld:ReligiousValues
andIdeologyinIndia
00 Jainism i-xxiv 20/1/09 14:30 Page ii
Daoism:AnIntroduction
RonnieLLittlejohn
HB:9781845116385
PB:9781845116392
Jainism:AnIntroduction
JefferyDLong
HB:9781845116255
PB:9781845116262
Islam:AnIntroduction
CatharinaRaudvere
HB:9781848850835
PB:9781848850842
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JennyRose
HB:9781848850873
PB:9781848850880
00 Jainism i-xxiv 20/1/09 14:30 Page iii
i.b.tauris introductions to religion
Jainism
An Introduction
by
Jeffery D Long
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Publishedin2009byI.B.Tauris&CoLtd
6SalemRoad,LondonW24BU
175FifthAvenue,NewYorkNY10010
www.ibtauris.com
DistributedintheUnitedStatesandCanadaExclusivelybyPalgraveMacmillan
175FifthAvenue,NewYorkNY10010
Copyright©2009JefferyD.Long
TherightofJefferyD.Longtobeidentifiedastheauthorofthisworkhas
beenassertedbytheauthorinaccordancewiththeCopyright,Designsand
PatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Thisbook,oranypartthereof,maynotbereproduced,stored
inorintroducedintoaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyany
means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,withoutthe
priorwrittenpermissionofthepublisher.
I.B.TaurisIntroductionstoReligion
ISBN:9781845116255(HB)
ISBN:9781845116262(PB)
AfullCIPrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
AfullCIPrecordisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:available
DesignedandTypesetby4wordLtd,Bristol,UK
PrintedandboundinIndiabyThomsonPressIndiaLtd
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Note on Diacritical Marks and Pronunciation of Indic Terms ix
Introduction: An Overview of this Book xi
ChapterI: What is Jainism? 1
ChapterII: Mahāvīra and the Origins of Jainism 29
ChapterIII: Jain History 57
ChapterIV: The Jain Path 83
ChapterV: The Jain Doctrines of Relativity: 117
An Intellectual History
ChapterVI: The Jain Doctrines of Relativity: 141
A Philosophical Analysis
ChapterVII: The Jain Vision and the Future of Humanity 173
Recommended Reading: A Brief Survey of the Literature on Jainism 185
Jain Chronology 189
Glossary 193
Notes 207
Bibliography 225
Index 231
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Formystudents:past,present,andfuture
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Acknowledgements
Writingthisbookhasbeenahumblingexperience.Thechallengeof
writingatextbookonanytopicisthatonehastocoverareasbeyond
one’sexpertise.I,forexample,havebeentrainedchieflyasaphiloso-
pherofreligion.ThefocusofmyworkonJainismhasbeenJainphi-
losophy, due to what I find to be its many exciting applications to
pressingquestionsabouttruth,diversity,andinter-religiousrelations.
Thisintellectualinterestofmine,aswellasthefactthatIteachcourses
on Indic religions to undergraduates, has sparked a broader curiosity
and a need to learn about the Jain tradition as a whole, in all its rich
historical complexity. But it would be an imposture to say that I am
anythinglikeanexpertonallthingsJain.(Ifsuchapersondoesexist,
itisprobablyPaulDundas,onwhoseworkIhavereliedheavilyinthe
writingofthisintroductorytext.)IhavelearnedmuchaboutJainism
in the course of writing this book. But, at the risk of using a well-
worncliché,themainthingIhavelearnedishowlittleIknowabout
this tradition and the community – or rather, the communities1 – to
whom it belongs.
Those to whom I owe an enormous debt of gratitude for their
assistance in the writing of this book include scholars whose works I
read or with whom I corresponded or conversed before I ever even
knew I would someday be writing a textbook on Jainism. If I fail to
mention anyone who is conscious of having informed me on any
topic covered in this book, I apologize for the omission.
While some may have been inadvertently omitted from these
acknowledgements, others may be surprised to find their names
mentioned because we have never actually met or corresponded.
But I am grateful to them nevertheless because of the degree to
which I have relied upon their expertise as found in their written
work. And some of the people I mention here are, sadly, no longer
with us.
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viii Jainism:AnIntroduction
With all that being said, I would like to thank Paul Dundas, P.S.
Jaini, Nathmal Tatia, Chris Chapple, Kristi Wiley, Kendall Folkert,
Whitney Kelting, Phyllis Granoff, Steve Heim, Pravin K. Shah,
Sulekh Jain, Vastupal Parikh, Pankaj Jain, Nick Gier, Shugan Jain,
Naresh Jain, Dilip Bobra, Yashwant Malaiya, Anne Vallely, Lawrence
Babb, and Saman Śrūtaprajñā.
I would like to thank my editor at I.B.Tauris, Alex Wright, for
conceiving of this book, and for his great patience and support
throughout the writing process. The ink had barely dried on our
contractwhenIwasforcedbyunforeseencircumstancestotakeonthe
responsibility of chairing my department at Elizabethtown College.
Thisdelayedmydeliveryofthemanuscriptbyseveralmonths.Alex’s
willingnesstoworkwithmymanytimeconstraintsandhisfaithinmy
abilitytoproduceaworthwhilevolumeattheendofitall,despitethe
unfinished nature of the first draft of the manuscript, has made this
book possible.
A special note of thanks goes to John Cort, whose careful reading
of the first draft of the manuscript and extensive comments thereon
havemademefeelasifheshouldbelistedasco-authorofthisbook.
Few people are as committed to the study and teaching of Jainism as
John,andhetookthisprojectasseriouslyasthoughitwerehisown.
Iamespeciallygratefulthat,despiteitsflaws,hesawsufficientpromise
inthemanuscripttorecommendthatI.B.TaurisandIpersistwithit.
Whatever flaws it retains are of course my responsibility, not John’s.
As always, I thank my wife, Mahua, for her boundless support for
my work, and Billy the cat, my constant companion. Both this book
and my first one, A Vision for Hinduism, were written with Billy
(whose name, in Hindi, means ‘cat’) at my feet.
Jai Jinendra!
Jeffery D Long
Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania
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Note on Diacritical Marks and
Pronunciation of Indic Terms
InthisbookIhaveusedthestandardinternationalsystemfortranslit-
erating Indic words into the Roman alphabet, with the exception of
modern names with a common Roman spelling (e.g. Ramakrishna
insteadofRāmakrsna,MahatmaGandhiinsteadofMahātmaGāmdhī,
etc.).
Regarding the correct pronunciation of Indic sounds:
a This is pronounced ‘uh’, as in ‘bud’.
ā This is pronounced ‘ah’, as in ‘father’.
i This is pronounced like the ‘i’in ‘bit’.
ī This is pronounced like the ‘ee’in ‘beet’.
u This is pronounced like the ‘oo’in ‘book’.
ū This is pronounced like the ‘oo’in ‘pool’.
r This is pronounced like the ‘ri’in ‘rig’with a slight roll of the
tongue, though not as hard a roll as in the Spanish r.
e This is pronounced like ‘ay’in ‘say’.
ai This is pronounced like ‘aye’or ‘eye’. However, in the case of the
important word ‘Jain’, it is not uncommon in contemporary
India to hear this pronounced like the English names ‘Jane’or
‘Jan’, depending upon the region from which the speaker hails.
These pronunciations are of course similarly extended to the
words ‘Jains’and ‘Jainism’.
o This is pronounced ‘oh’, as in ‘Ohio’.
auThis is pronounced like ‘ow’in ‘how’.
Consonants are pronounced as in English, but consonants with a
dotunderthem(e.g.t)arepronouncedwiththetonguetouchingthe
roof of the mouth.
Consonantsimmediatelyfollowedbyan‘h’(e.g.th,dh)includean
exhalation – that is, the ‘h’is pronounced, producing somewhat of a
softening of the consonant.