Materializing Continuity: Temple Architecture, Pedagogy, and Communal Formation in the American Jain Diaspora

This paper examines how temple architecture functions as a material strategy of continuity within the American Jain diaspora. Focusing on the Jain Center of Southern California (JCSC), I ask: how does the transition from provisional domestic worship spaces to purpose-built temple complexes reshape religious pedagogy, sectarian negotiation, and communal identity? Drawing on ethnographic research, including interviews and participant observation, I trace the movement from early home-based religious education—conducted in living rooms and garages by first-generation migrants—to institutional temple environments modeled after Indian marble temples (derāsars). I argue that architectural consolidation reorganizes not only ritual practice but also educational programming, authority structures, and generational transmission. Purpose-built temples incorporate classrooms inspired by American institutions while also enabling ecumenical worship that softens sectarian distinctions between Digambara and Śvetāmbara communities. Engaging scholarship in material religion and diaspora studies, this paper demonstrates that built space does not merely contain the sacred; it actively produces religious subjectivity and communal belonging. In the Jain case, architecture becomes a medium through which minority identity is stabilized, pedagogical innovation is institutionalized, and continuity is materially imagined for future generations.