Jainism: An Introduction PDF
Preview Jainism: An Introduction
00 Jainism i-xxiv 20/1/09 14:30 Page i 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 Zoroastrianism:AnIntroduction 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 00 Jainism i-xxiv 20/1/09 14:30 Page iv 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 00 Jainism i-xxiv 20/1/09 14:30 Page v 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 00 Jainism i-xxiv 20/1/09 14:30 Page vi Formystudents:past,present,andfuture 00 Jainism i-xxiv 20/1/09 14:30 Page vii 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. 00 Jainism i-xxiv 20/1/09 14:30 Page viii 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 00 Jainism i-xxiv 20/1/09 14:30 Page ix 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.
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