This panel examines Jain texts on conduct as central to Jain religious practice, exploring its historical development and institutional adaptations. Jain traditions articulate distinct yet interconnected conduct codes for monks and laypeople, both rooted in spiritual liberation. The first three papers focus on Jain monastic discipline: shifts in attitudes toward monastic residences, embodied practices regulating Digambara hierarchy, and the Upāsakadaśāh’s role in integrating lay followers. The fourth and fifth papers address Jain yoga, tracing its evolving definitions from early texts to medieval and modern contexts. One explores the systematization of yoga by thinkers like Haribhadra and Yaśovijaya, while another examines Muni Ratnacandra’s 1950 Gujarati commentary on Hemacandra’s Yogaśāstra within lay ethics and sectarian traditions. Our presenters highlight tensions between ascetic ideals and socio-historical realities, showing how Jain texts on conduct negotiate doctrinal purity with practical needs. This panel contributes to Jain Studies by reassessing conduct in monastic and lay contexts.
The early Jain literature, canonical and non-canonical, regardless of the sectarian affiliation, glorifies monastic stays in liminal spaces and solitary isolation. However, they also gradually reflect adaptations accommodating communal living, urban stays in the house of laity, and sometimes, structured monastic spaces. A long developmental phase of the canonical literature, stretching for almost a millennium, before its eventual compilation, betrays a lack of a monolithic textual code on this issue. These differences emerged out of pragmatic readjustments to contemporary needs by both sects. A similar trend is visible in the later exegetical literature, commentaries, and other normative texts. This study in longue durée, examines how monastic lawgivers navigated these tensions, balancing adherence to orthopraxy with pragmatic concerns, sometimes through a sustained idealization, or through necessary adaptions, and sometimes through an uncanny silence.
Talal Asad in his Genealogies of Religion (1993) discusses discipline as an “embodied practice” which considers body as a site of religious formation. Asad argues that discipline involves practices that shape body and subjectivity to regulate the religious life of an individual. Based on this framework, my presentation will investigate the ritual organizational discipline and the establishment of authority and obedience in Digambara monastic jurisprudence. The primary source of the presentation will be the Mūlācāra of Vaṭṭakera and its commentary Ācāravṛtti of Vasunandi. The paper will take three case studies from the text ̶ samācāra, vinaya and, vandanā as ‘embodied practices’ to explore the ritualized organizational discipline of a monk. The core methodology of the paper will be a philological analysis of primary sources with a focus on the historical framework provided by Asad to understand the role of bodily discipline and religious practices in constructing authority in religious communities.
Śrāvakācāra cognates the Sanskrit words śrāvaka, literally translatable to “one who listens” and used contextually to indicate the Jain householder laity, and ācāra meaning “conduct,” together meaning roughly lay conduct. In that sense, the Upāsakadaśāh, the Seventh Angā of the Śvetāmbara canon, fulfills just the function of a śrāvakācāra without being so categorized by Jains or scholars of Jainism as such. This makes the Upāsakadaśāh a unique example of a text that focuses on lay conduct whilst being part of the core of the Śvetāmbara canon. This paper will historicize the Upāsakadaśāh’s role as one of the earliest consolidated attempts by the predominantly monastic Jain ascetics to situate the laity within their theological-philosophical framework. It will analyze how the framers of the Śvetāmbara canon constructed a consolidated discourse on lay conduct, complete with both doctrine and narrative tales that image the ideal Śvetāmbara śrāvaka.
This paper examines the evolving concept of yoga in Jain thought. Early Jain sources define yoga as the activity or vibrations of the soul, with Umāsvāti's Tattvārthasūtra describing it as “bodily, verbal, and mental action” (TS 6.1Ś). In this framework, yoga is tied to karmic bondage, while viyoga signifies liberation. Over time, under Upaniṣadic influence, yoga became associated with ethical restraint, prayer, and meditation. Some medieval Jain thinkers, such as Haribhadra, Śubhacandra, and Hemacandra, redefined yoga within distinctively Jain practices. Haribhadra defines yoga in the Yogabindu as all spiritual and religious activities leading to emancipation, a perspective later systematized slightly different by Yaśovijaya (1624–1688), whose contributions remain understudied. In modern times, yoga has continued evolving, reflecting diverse interpretations across historical contexts. This paper reviews contemporary scholarship that has only recently begun exploring these developments, offering new insights into the transformation of yoga in Jainism and its broader historical trajectories.
This paper examines Nīti Mārgānusārīnā 35 Bola Athavā Māṇasāi Eṭale Śuṃ?, a 1951 commentary by the Sthānakavāsī monk Ratnacandra, which interprets the thirty-five qualities of an ideal Jain layperson (śrāvaka) from Hemacandra’s Yogaśāstra. Unique within Sthānakavāsī traditions, the text emphasizes benevolence, humanity, and ethical living, offering a contemporary perspective on Jain moral values. Written in the post-colonial era, it reflects nationalist and anti-colonial sentiments, redefining the ideal layperson within a Jain ethical framework. Ratnacandra’s work promotes a nationalistic Jain identity while preserving core religious values. This study situates his commentary within early post-independence India, highlighting its role in shaping modern Jain self-conception. By exploring the intersection of Jain ethics, religious tradition, and national identity, this paper contributes to Jain studies by revealing how religious thought engaged with broader socio-political changes, influencing both individual and communal expressions of Jain identity.