Articles & Blog
45 articles
The Life and Times of Mahavira
Vardhamana Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara, reshaped Jain teaching in the Ganges valley during the sixth century BCE, an age of intense relig...
Parshvanatha, the Twenty-Third Tirthankara
Parshvanatha, placed by tradition in the ninth century BCE, is widely regarded by scholars as a genuine historical predecessor of Mahavira.
Rishabhanatha in Jain Cosmic Tradition
Rishabhanatha, the first Tirthankara, belongs to Jain cosmic history rather than documented chronology, yet his legend shapes Jain views of...
The Great Schism: Digambara and Svetambara
Around the first century CE the Jain community formally divided into the sky-clad Digambaras and white-clad Svetambaras over nudity, scriptu...
Bhadrabahu and the Migration South
The tradition of Bhadrabahu leading Jain monks from famine-stricken Magadha to Karnataka anchors both the southern spread of Jainism and the...
The Council of Pataliputra and the Agamas
In the early Mauryan period a council at Pataliputra sought to salvage the fading Jain scriptures, beginning the long effort to fix an oral...
The Council of Valabhi and the Written Canon
At Valabhi in Gujarat around 453 CE, under Devardhi-gani, the Svetambara Agamas were finally committed to writing, fixing the canon that sur...
Chandragupta Maurya and Jain Renunciation
Jain tradition holds that the first Mauryan emperor abdicated, embraced Jainism under Bhadrabahu, and died by ritual fasting at Shravanabela...
Ashoka, Samprati and Mauryan Jainism
While Ashoka embraced Buddhism, Jain tradition celebrates his grandson Samprati as a great royal patron who spread the faith across the Maur...
King Kharavela and the Hathigumpha Inscription
The rock-cut inscription of Kharavela at Udayagiri in Odisha records a Jain emperor of Kalinga and stands among the most important epigraphs...
Jainism at Mathura and the Kankali Tila
The mound of Kankali Tila at Mathura has yielded centuries of Jain sculpture and inscriptions, documenting a thriving community from before...
Jain Art under the Kushan Empire
Under Kushan rule in the first three centuries CE, the Mathura workshops produced a mature Jain iconography that would set conventions for c...