Curator’s preface
Jainism is an ancient Indian religion, at least a generation older than Buddhism, with which it has much in common. At its heart are an ethic of nonviolence, a respect for all living beings, and a belief in the existence of a permanent soul, whose true nature is obscured by an individual’s accumulated karma. The goal of Jain religious practice is ultimately to end the painful cycle of rebirths (sam.sāra) and attain liberation from all suffering. This is done by the practice of asceticism and the careful elimination of the passions that lead us astray. When all the obstructions have been removed and the influx of new ones prevented, the soul in its pure state is freed from bondage. The Jain community is divided into two groups: monks and nuns, who have renounced the world and practice stringent austerities; and laymen and women, who remain in everyday life and observe the vows ordained for householders. While liberation is possible only for those who have renounced the world, lay devotees earn merit by supporting the monks and by donating temples and images, and throughout history wealthy Jain merchant families have been the mainstay of the religious community. Jain monastics eventually formed two separate groups: the Śvetāmbaras, whose monks wear white robes; and the Digambaras, whose monks reject even the possession of monastic robes and go about naked. While Jain communities once flourished in most parts of India, today Jains are most numerous in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan in western India, Madhya Pradesh in central India, Maharashtra in the Deccan, and Karnataka in the south.
The Jinas All Jains pay homage to the founders of the faith, who are called Jinas (Conquerors) and also Tīrtha karas (a term that has been interpreted to mean both “Founders of the Tīrtha, the fourfold Jain Community” and “Makers of the Ford that gives safe passage across the waters of worldly existence”). Jains believe in a series of time periods of descending prosperity. There have been twenty-four Jinas in our present time cycle, the last of whom was Mahāvīra, an older contemporary of the historical Buddha Śākyamuni, according to most scholars. The twenty-four Jinas of the present cycle—only two of whom scholars agree were historical figures—have been liberated from worldly existence and dwell in a special realm reserved for perfected beings. Nonetheless, they are accessible to worshipers in the here and now through their teachings and their images—although certain groups reject image worship. The Jain universe is a complex structure of multiple continents and encircling oceans; even now there are said to be other Jinas, who continue to preach the Jain doctrine in distant lands beyond the reach of most mortals living in our part of the universe. Prayers are also addressed to these Jinas and their images in sacred shrines. The 10
