At a time when the advancement and proliferation of technology is growing more rapidly than ever before, this panel seeks to shine a light on the multiple ways that Jains have viewed and used these tools for a variety of purposes and the impact this has had upon the Jain world. Whether it be for the promulgation of Jain teachings, the promotion of influential Jain leaders, expanding ideas of the Jain world and collective Jain identities, or to engage with and enhance ritual practices, the adoption of various technologies has played a key role in reaching and bringing together wider Jain audiences, shaping the ways in which Jains practice their religion, and how they conceive of themselves as Jain in an ever-more globalised world.
The Jains came relatively late to the adoption of print technology. Whereas most other religious communities in South Asia were extensively printing books and pamphlets using lithography and movable type by the middle of the nineteenth century, it was not until the 1870s that we see significant Jain printing. The first two sustained Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jain print projects were the four-volume Prakaraṇ Ratnākar published by Bhīmsingh Māṇak (Māṇek) in Bombay between 1876 and 1881, and the twenty-three books of the Āgama Saṅgrah sponsored by Rāy Dhanpatisingh Bahādur of Murshidabad and printed in Calcutta, Bombay, Ahmedabad, Banaras and Murshidabad between 1874 and 1900. Both projects faced opposition from more conservative elements in Jain society. This paper analyzes the publishers’ arguments in defense of the use of mechanical print to publish Jain religious texts.
The changeover from print- to internet-based information dissemination relocates religious authority from lineage-based chains of transmission to a hyper-individualized “consumer appeal” model of the bandwidth privileged. This historical process is illustrated here by comparing the online biographies of Śrīmad Rājcandra (1867-1901) of two organizations: one, the Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram in Agas, Gujarat (AA) (est. 1919); the other, the Shrimad Rajchandra Mission of Dharampur, Gujarat (SRMD) (est. 2001). Regarded as authoritative throughout the 20th century, since 2016 the AA’s online biography has included details found only in the SRMD’s online biography, becoming a “dynamic archive” that authorizes the latter’s version, which simultaneously acknowledges and dismantles both archival- and memory-based challenges to truth-claims. Instead, as the internet is a commercial platform in which all information operates on the logic of capitalist consumption, truth becomes a matter of the superiority of the information producer’s ability to fit into the consumer’s self-image and “lifestyle.”
This paper explores how mobility and technology are entangled in creating a shared mental map of the Jain world. As mendicants and other influential Jain figures travel between communities, and report to different audiences, a shared understanding of the geography and boundaries of the Jain world emerges. Although this is not new, I argue its workings merit scholarly attention as the aspects of technology and mobility that shape the shared imagination of a connected Jain world have been subject to change since the mid-19th century.
This paper examines a 1952 travelogue and social media pages of prominent Jain figures (2024-2025) to show how the use of newly adopted technologies by these travelling Jain figures provokes a reconsidering of the imagined map of Jainism, suggesting the inclusion or repositioning of previously excluded or peripheral spaces, which is essential to the integration of overseas communities into an imagined global community of Jains.
The pañca-kalyāṇaka pratiṣṭhā ritual consecrates a new temple image (pratimā), with the re-enactment of the five key events of a tīrthaṅkara’s life, transforming the sculpted image from mere marble to that which embodies the perfected qualities of a jina and is therefore worshippable. Within the Kānjī Svāmī tradition, this ritual has long constituted an important part of temple life and is enthusiastically celebrated, despite the apparent contradiction it poses to the knowledge-based path to liberation that is promoted. This paper aims to explore ways in which the ritual has changed through the adoption of new technology, allowing for novel and expanded means of performance and participation. Using archival images and fieldwork interviews, I will offer a comparative, historical analysis to demonstrate how the incorporation of different technologies has transformed not just the ritual itself but also the experience for the participant, renewing a sense of individual and collective mumukṣu identity.