Communicating Jainism: Media & Messages

Transcription

1 EASR 2017 KU Leuven Communicating Jainism: Media & Messages Conveners: Tillo Detige, Tine Vekemans & Heleen De Jonckheere (UGhent) From a strictly historical perspective, Jainism has been around for over two and a half millennia. According to its self-understanding, it has existed exponentially longer still, and is in fact eternal. Throughout even the narrower time frame, the Jaina traditions (in the plural) have seen, reacted to, and caused sea changes in their external contexts and internal configurations. When accounting for what remained stable throughout, and similarly when analysing what distinguishes specific phases, scholarly descriptions commonly continue to present messages (beliefs, doctrines, philosophies, prescriptions). Even when noted, the importance of practices or media often remains secondary to the contents they supposedly transmit, preserve, and inculcate. In our view, constellations of practices, handed down to new generations, selected and deselected differently over time and place, and varying between sub-traditions, form the Jaina traditions real foundations. These are practices of learning and teaching, of being and becoming, embodied practices transpiring outside of or prior to rationalization (ritual, storytelling, and meditation, to name but a few), but also discursive, philosophical, and literary activities, and selfrepresentations. Some are techniques consciously performed to engineer Jaina selves, others are ways of learning rarely conceived of or theorized as such in emic thought. The continuity of the Jaina traditions, we aver, lies in the conditioning, development, and transformation of individuals and communities by and through such practices. Practice precedes theorisation, and is active at a deeper epistemic level. Mere analysis or prioritization of theory (as theology ) fails to do justice to the unique properties of the performed techniques of knowledge production. Messages (changed or continued) should therefore, in our understanding, never be studied in splendid isolation from their media, nor be seen as existing independent of them, let alone as a prioris. Though working from a variety of methodological procedures and disciplinary perspectives, and spanning a temporally and geographically broad, if not vast array of subjects and fields, the contributions to this panel share the intent to describe the Jaina traditions not through reified, decontextualized contents, but through the lens of their channels of transmission, embodiment, and learning. The first papers (Session I) offer Theoretical Perspectives on a practice-centred approach to Jainism, the mutual relation of messages and media, and the tension between shifting emic and etic ideas concerning the precedence of either. The second session, Storytelling, Wordplay, Literary Composition, features reflections on the life and functions of texts, beyond the mere transmission of doctrines. All in their own way and in relation to multifarious genres, literatures, and usages, from story-telling and devotional praise to puzzled argumentation and the novel, these papers will examine how texts communicate, embody, shape, or redirect Jaina traditions. Session III turns to New Media, New Messages, exploring how in recent decades new media and messages modified understandings of meditation and charity, and gave rise to novel discourses of heritage and identity, in active as well as more unwitting readjustments to global processes, both in India and in the diaspora.

2 Session I. Communicating Jainism: Theoretical Perspectives (Chair: Heleen De Jonckheere) 1. Steve Vose (Florida International University): Reflections Toward a New Approach to the Anthropology of Jainism 2. Tillo Detige (Ghent University): Commu(nica)ting Selves: Dancing Devotees & The Practice Theoretical Approach to the Jaina Traditions 3. Tine Vekemans (Ghent University): Learning Jain Online: How New Technologies Impact Upon the Practice-Theory Equilibrium Session II. Communicating Jainism: Storytelling, Wordplay, Literary Composition (Chair: Tillo Detige) 1. Heleen De Jonckheere (Ghent University): The Story of the Stories within the Story: Narrating Jain-Selves 2. Lynna Dhanani (Yale University): The Transformative Nature of Hymns: A Twelfthcentury Jain Monk s Usage and Conceptualization of Stotras 3. Marie-Hélène Gorisse (Ghent University & SOAS): The Practice of Riddle in Jainism: Playing with Words during a Philosophical Disputation 4. Guzel Strelkova (Moscow State University): Jainism and Jain Conceptions in Hindi Literature Session III. Communicating Jainism: New Media, New Messages (Chair: Tine Vekemans) 1. Whitney M. Kelting (Northeastern University): A Real Tirth Has a Website, A Real Tirth Needs No Website: Using Media to Build Temple Prestige 2. Mahima Jain (Independent researcher): Communicating Heritage: Construction of Tamil Jain Identity in Print and Social Media 3. Bindi Shah (University of Southampton): Narratives of Jain Religiosity or of Humanitarianism: Understanding Jain Diaspora Philanthropy 4. Samani Pratibha Pragya (SOAS): Role of Media and Manpower in Dissemination of Prekṣā-dhyāna

3 Session I. Communicating Jainism: Theoretical Perspectives Reflections Toward a New Approach to the Anthropology of Jainism Steve Vose (Florida International University) Lived religions approaches reshaped Jainology over the last 30 years. Focusing on the practices, statements, texts and objects which Jains themselves use, scholars argue this approach better describes what it means to be Jain than studies which investigate doctrine, philosophy, etc. as found in canonical scriptures and intellectual works. Anthropological and historical studies of Jains sought to describe the Jain traditions in ways recognizable to Jains themselves. However, some groups of Jains express uneasiness about the state and nature of scholarship on their tradition, expressing a preference for scholars to study Jainism rather than Jains themselves. That is, they prefer the study of abstract, ahistorical beliefs, doctrines, and philosophies, especially as they may address contemporary global issues. This presents scholars of the lived religions approach with an ethical challenge: how should scholars address the changing dynamics within Jain communities? Is it possible to do justice both to the demands of historicist and phenomenological studies and continue to track a Jain tradition that forges its own new interests in canonical scriptures and philosophical writings, which may be far from the everyday experiences of other Jains? Attending to the problems of doing so may help scholars to recognize latent forms of Orientalism in our work and to develop a supple academic platform for studying recent interests in tenets, doctrines and philosophies among specific Jain groups such as the Śvetāmbar Terāpanth as new forms of praxis. Such an anthropology should help scholars to address the new ways such Jains think about what is important to their lives as Jains. Such re-centering may help scholars of Jainism become more responsive to the gender and especially class dynamics that exist within Jain communities in India and in the diaspora, as we continue to ask the vital question of who has the power to represent Jains and Jainism. Commu(nica)ting Selves: Dancing Devotees & The Practice Theoretical Approach to the Jaina Traditions Tillo Detige (Ghent University) In recent decades, the anthropological, ethnographic, sociological, and ritual study of the Jaina traditions has come to blossom, if not fruition. Given turns to the material, the performative, the embodied, the sensory, and the emotional in the study of religion and South Asian traditions more broadly, further developments can be expected. Yet today, even when focusing on lived religion,

4 scholarly analyses can still be found to be marked by a grammar premised on ( believed ) beliefs, (reified) doctrines, and (rarefied) philosophical stances. Daily practices, though now almost by default included in the proverbial standard textbook account, are often relegated there to subsidiary chapters. If not as sugar-coating, stories can still be discussed as transmitting primordial doctrines, and devotion and ritual, though no longer regarded as medieval corruptions, understood merely as secondary manifestations of beliefs. A wide chasm remains between the realms of scholarship on practice and philosophy respectively. This paper aims to dismiss the under-theorized vocabulary of belief, and to shy away from the unquestioned concept of tradition as the communication of a priori doctrines. The cataloguing of theoretical concepts which does not take into consideration actual practices of learning reasons away, I argue, the Jain traditions alterity by reducing them to the cerebral shadow plays called philosophies. I attempt to build an alternative description, considerate of the idiosyncratic, epistemological function of the various practices operated for the engineering of Jaina selves, and articulated precisely through them. Amongst such Jaina technologies of the self (Foucault) or anthropotechniques (Sloterdijk) are ritual and devotional practices, story-telling and literary composition, meditation, renunciation, dietary restrictions and fasting, but also pilgrimage, song and dance, as well as intellectual study and discursive, philosophical activities. I will argue that the latter are theorizations taking place within an earlier, devotional-narrative-renunciative episteme, constructed through embodied techniques operating prior to rationalizations. Learning Jain Online: How New Technologies Impact Upon the Practice-Theory Equilibrium Tine Vekemans (Ghent University) The Jain tradition has been passed on through multiple centuries since the last great teacher of our time, Mahavira, lived and taught in the 6 th century BCE. Typically, Jainism is learned by taking part in religious actions, by interaction with ascetics, and by the telling and retelling of stories. Although Jain religious praxis is often conceptualized as very individual, these methods of learning are intensely interactive and social. In the past two decades Jainism has increasingly found its way online. Arguably, the social and performative aspects discussed above tend to be difficult to transfer to an online environment. Especially in the early days of the internet, text-based information, often simplified, was the most prevalent Jain content online. This shift to a new media environment undoubtedly had an impact on what aspects of Jainism were emphasized, and on how the tradition was portrayed. We see, for

5 example, that while individual textual study is facilitated, devotional and ritual aspects are much less prevalent in early online Jainism. However, recent years have seen the proliferation first of audio and video files, discussion boards, and more recently still of Whats App groups and live-streams. To a certain extent, these new developments have introduced the social and performative aspects discussed above into online Jainism. Together with the gradual acceptance of the use of these new media by ascetics in India, these developments have changed the content available online, and the way in which people engage with this content. After telling the story of the history of Jainism online, this paper will address the impact of the digital turn on the way Jainism is passed on and learned, and on what aspects of Jainism are most likely to be emphasised online. Session II. Communicating Jainism: Storytelling, Wordplay, Literary Composition The Story of the Stories within the Story: Narrating Jain-Selves Heleen De Jonckheere (Ghent University) In the broad range of communicative channels story literature is one of the main ways to communicate a (religious) tradition, especially in the Indian context. Stories are told and retold to continue the tradition; they are created and modified to convey certain changes within the tradition. Jainism too, has a vast array of narrative literature, as reflected by the sheer amount of manuscripts of narratives, in multiple languages and various formats. As is the perception in some scholarly research, these narratives were not just popular (and thus corrupt) means to teach certain doctrines and beliefs, they brought about religious experience on their own. In this paper I want to examine how a certain category of texts, Dharmaparīkṣā (by Amitagati, Hariṣeṇa and others), channeled Jain tradition towards its own public. This popular Jain narrative, written from the tenth century onwards, consists of a frame story into which many short, mostly Puranic, stories are embroidered. As the title suggests the work serves as a critique on Puranic Hinduism by showing the flaws and inconsistencies in Puranic stories. By looking at the stories within the main story, I want to examine the full function of these texts. Next to its layer of convincing and converting, I also want to look at what Jain tradition these texts convey: which Jain selves are communicated through the narratives. Exploring all layers ofdharmaparīkṣā might help to understand how Jains experienced and formed their tradition through story literature.

6 The Transformative Nature of Hymns: A Twelfth-century Jain Monk s Usage and Conceptualization of Stotras Lynna Dhanani (Yale University) The history of the production of hymns (or stotras, stutis and stavans) in the Jain Śvetāmbara and Digambara traditions is long and varied. As early as the first- to second-century BCE Sūtrakṛtāṇga (Śvetāmbara Jain canonical work), we see the Jina Mahāvīra glorified in the Mahāvīra-stavan written in Prakrit. Such canonical hymns describe the Jina as compassionate but detached, impersonal and something of a superhero. Especially after the sixth century when independent hymns were composed in Sanskrit and Prakrit, Jains monks used the medium of hymns to simultaneously praise the Jina and to perform other intellectual feats, such as expound Jain doctrine and logic, as is found for example in Samantabhadra s sixth-century Svāyambhū-stotra. By the eleventh and twelfth centuries, monks had expanded their repertoire for praising the Jina. In the famous Śvetāmbara Jain scholarmonk Hemacandra s Mahādeva-stotra, for example, written to convert the Śaiva Caulūkya King Kumārapāla to Jainism, the Jina embodies the attributes of the Hindu god Śiva. On Kumārapāla s request, Hemacandra composed for him the Triṣaṣṭi-śalākā-puruṣa-caritra (TŚPC), a Jain universal history, the Yoga-śāstra (YŚ), a manual outlining the Jain path, and the Vītarāga stotra (VS), a praise hymn to the twenty-fourth Jina Mahāvīra defining, in 188 verses, the meaning of God within Jainism. This paper will examine the last chapter of the TŚPC, in which Hemacandra punctuates the narrative of the Jina Mahāvīra s biography with stotras, some of which come directly from his VS and refer to doctrinal notions found in his YŚ. I will argue that, by juxtaposing these texts within this specific narrative, Hemacandra effectively promotes the transformative nature of Jain practice through stotra and the transformative nature of stotra itself within the tradition. I will also discuss the ways in which this is both unique and in keeping with the long tradition of stotra-making that he inherited. The Practice of Riddle in Jainism: Playing with Words during a Philosophical Disputation Marie-Hélène Gorisse (Ghent University & SOAS) In Jain monastic communities of the mediaeval period, there is a widespread practice of communicating using riddles. Leading Jain figures are frequently depicted in their hagiographies as versed in those charades-like plays with words, which are so refined that they can prompt the conversion to Jainism of learned people from another obedience. Riddles are also frequently used in the letter of solicitation

7 sent by one religious community to a renowned monk in order to invite him to stay in their community. In this lecture, I will focus on a third less known use of riddles in Jain ways of communicating, namely the practice of puzzle-argument (patra), which is an inferential reasoning expressed during a philosophical disputation by means of statements abounding in similar wordplays. Introduced by Vidyānanda in his Patraparīkṣā in the tenth century, this technique has been linked with Jain perspectivism a few decades later by Prabhācandra in hisprameyakamalamārtaṇḍa, but hardly survived the two mentioned treatises. This lecture first aims at presenting the theory of puzzle-arguments alongside concrete examples, as well as an overview of the coding techniques used, for instance the reference to lists located in grammatical and epistemological treatises. Second, the relevance of using such a means for communicating a philosophical content will be put under question, especially in connection with Jain perspectivism and its consequences in the tradition of hermeneutics in Jainism. Jainism and Jain conceptions in Hindi Literature Guzel Strelkova (Moscow State University) "Jainism, one of the ancient religions, has not become a world religion like Buddhism, but exists till today and has many followers not only in India. Jainism attracts attention of scholars also. Russian scholars N.A. Jeleznova, A.A. Terentjeva and V.K. Shohin dedicated their research to philosophy of Jainism, studies and translation of classical philosophical Jain texts. Many prominent Hindi writers were born in Jain community. Usually they do not stress their religious identity. Their writings are regarded as a secular part of a literary context in India. Still there are examples of a religious approach to their characters in some of their writings. One example is Nathu Ram Premi ( ), who was an intellectual, a writer and a founder of a Publishing House, where published novels and stories of great Indian writers like Premchand or Shvetambara and Digambara writers. Most of the novels by Jainendra Kumar, a founder of psychological Hindi novel, were published there also. J.Kumar was a younger contemporary of Premchand, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, and a devoted adherent of Ahimsa. Concept of Ahimsa is followed in Jainism more strictly than in Hinduism. Jiva is also very important in this religion. They play a great role in novels by J.Kumar who was initiated into Jainism by a famous Jain Mahatma Bhagvan Din, and got his early education in Hastinapura Gurukul. These facts played a formative role in the life of J. Kumar. Hastinapura is a holy place both for Hindu and Jains, and it is a very important Jain religious centre. The main purpose of the paper is to show on the basis of novels by Jainendra Kumar how some ideas of Jainism, mainly Ahimsa, are expressed in his writings. Some activity

8 of his heroes could be understood as techniques through which individuals seek to transform themselves and others. Reference: Jainendra Kumar. Kalyani. Delhi, 1936 Jainendra Kumar. Tyaag part. Delhi, 1938 Session III. Communicating Jainism: New Media, New Messages A Real Tirth Has a Website, A Real Tirth Needs No Website: Using Media to Build Temple Prestige Whitney M. Kelting (Northeastern University) The significance of Jain temples is partly linked to their inclusion on pilgrimage routes and in collections of temples (often referred to as panca-tirthas). In these on line sources were rare and most Jains used pilgrimage guidebooks shared among relatives and friends. More recently, on-line pilgrimage information serves that role. For well-established tirthas--like Shatrunjay--inclusion in these on-line pilgrimage guidebooks is assumed. For the most central Jain pilgrimage sites, these marketing techniques are unnecessary and, if done at all usually in direct link to a resort or tour company trying to catch your attention, are done in the most perfunctory manner. The negotiations happen at the edges where temples are vying for inclusion in the collections and even for the status of tirtha. Pilgrimage sites with easily accessed information can be researched more quickly by those planning pilgrimages and thereby have increased likelihood being included. The use of websites for temples illustrates the negotiations of status claims by particular temples and part of the way temples crystallize or transform themselves through media. Communicating Heritage: Construction of Tamil Jain Identity in Print and Social Media Mahima Jain (Independent researcher) Tamil Jains h/ave been a part of the regional history of South India for over two millennia. From an omnipresent community a millennium ago to a marginalised one in the 21st century, their predicament today is to find place for themselves in a world that has forgotten them. This paper aims to understand how the Tamil Jain identity is constructed and communicated in contemporary print media, through the coverage of heritage, vis-a-vis discourses on closed community groups on social media.

9 By examining the reportage of Tamil Jain monuments, finds and artefacts in the English language newspaper The Hindu, a leading publication with consistent reportage on heritage, the paper examines how heritage has emerged as a primary rallying point through which others writing about Tamil Jains has shaped the identity of the community, constantly placing it in the past in the media and in public imagination. While such reportage achieves the purpose of throwing light on the community s integral position in South Indian history, popular narratives of which have constantly eliminated and/or downplayed the existence and importance of Tamil Jains as pointed out by Richard Davis 1 and Christoph Emmerich, 2 here we examine the way it shapes the Tamil Jain identity and practices in contemporary society. In comparison newer forms of media, such as Facebook, play a unique role allowing the community to engage in self-reflective identity formation and giving them control of the message and allowing for a wider discourse that shapes their identity and practice. 3,4 The paper hopes to understand how heritage is used for construction of contemporary identity, why it has become the locus of most discussions on Tamil Jains, and the role different media have played. Narratives of Jain religiosity or of Humanitarianism: Understanding Jain Diaspora Philanthropy Bindi Shah (University of Southampton) The roots of philanthropy amongst Jains can be linked to religious values and duties with regard to alms giving. Classically, dān is a disinterested gift, a gift without expectation of return, debt or reciprocity. In a hierarchical order of different types of gifts, a gift to a worthy recipient is the highest form of dān a lay person can make, to the only really worthy recipients, renouncers seeking liberation. While Jain ascetics renounce all worldly possessions and focus their life mission to work toward their own internal purification, the Jain nun who established TripleS, a Jain socio-spiritual organisation, has reinterpreted this ascetic path. She argues that compassion in action practiced through seva is the key message of the Jain tradition. In reinterpreting the ascetic path as seva and creating an institutional organisation through which to fulfil this worldly mission, the nun has allowed for the possibility of private voluntary philanthropy. I draw on qualitative interviews with 24 diasporic Jains who have engaged in philanthropic giving to TripleS to examine whether classical understandings of dān and the ethic of seva or Western 1 Davis, Richard, The Story of the Disappearing Jains in Open Boundaries, John Cort ed. (1998) 2 Emmerich, Christoph, The Ins and Outs of the Jains in Tamil Literary Histories in Journal of Indian Philosophy 39 (6): (2011) 3 Facebook group 1 called Tamil Jains. URL: (Accessed on December 27, 2016) 4 Facebook group 2 called Tamil Jains. URL: (Accessed on December 27, 2016)

10 understandings of giving shape the motivations and sustainability of philanthropic donations to TripleS. I contend that their philanthropy merges classical forms of Jain giving and Western ideas of giving. TripleS, the organisation, has become a worthy vessel for receiving dān, rather than the individual nuns that are part of TripleS. Additionally, some regard such philanthropy as an important avenue to transmit Jain religiosity and norms of compassion among Jain children in the diaspora. Classical understandings of dān merge with Western ideas of giving, as is evident in displays of attachment to and concern for impact of the gifts. Overall, my respondents view philanthropy to TripleS as enacting Jain religiosity and being Jain in the modern world. Role of Media and Manpower in Dissemination of Prekṣā-dhyāna Samani Pratibha Pragya (SOAS) Early Jain meditative practices focused on one s own liberation and solitary practices. Secularisation of Jaina doctrine and practice by contemporary Jaina religious leaders present a different strategy, namely, the use of meditation and yoga as tools for holistic development that alleviate every day problems of stress and anxiety and cultivate physical and mental health and well-being on a global platform. Mahāprajña ( ) began personal meditative practice in 1944 and subsequently imparted this practice to ascetic members of the Terāpanth congregation (saṅgha). These practices were launched as prekṣā-dhyāna in 1975 and disseminated both nationally and internationally. This article explores the techniques used for the propagation of prekṣā-dhyāna. I argue that the dissemination of prekṣādhyāna engages in the similar shared cultural processes being applied by yoga gurus of twentieth century for the promotion of their own yoga package in the contemporary world. The Terāpanth sect started reaching out to promote prekṣā-dhyāna through various means such as public lectures (vaktavya) and workshops (kāryaśālā), national and international camps, retreats (śivira), training families (parivāra) in prekṣā-dhyāna, holding trainers sessions (praśikṣaṇa), celebration of prekṣā-day (divasa), celebration of prekṣā-year (varṣa), conferring the prekṣā-award (purṣkāra), organising a prekṣā task-force (kāryavāhini), and building prekṣā meditation centres (kendra). Disseminaiton techniques include the use of various print-media such as prekṣā-literature (sāhitya), prekṣā-magazines (patrikā), newspapers (sāmācār-patra), and electronic-media such as audio-visual packages, apps, websites, television programmes, etc. It is noteworthy that a department of Yoga and Science of Living at Jain Vishva Bharati Institute has been established to enable preksha-dhyāna to enter main stream education. Research into the dissemination of prekṣā-dhyāna will study each of the above mentioned aspects Research methods will include personal participation/observation, analysis of

11 Terāpanth archival material on prekṣā dhyāna, interviews of lay and monastic members of the Terāpanth sect, and surveys of prekṣā-dhyāna related materials in print and non-print media. There has been research conducted by Andrea Jain (2010, 2015) on the consumer culture of yoga in which she briefly discusses the propagation of prekṣā-dhyāna. Smita Kothari (2013) examines media usage by the Terāpanth sect in the context of giving (dāna) and meditation (dhyāna) and its social impact. This study differs in its in depth investigation of the methods of dissemination used by the Terapanth sect, their mode of execution, how varied initiatives used different strategies and methods of targeting, and, finally, an appraisal of the success of these strategies in the dissemination of prekṣādhyāna after four decades.