Articles & Blog
207 articles
The Kalabhras and the Age of the Ascetics
The obscure Kalabhra dynasty that overran the Tamil country in the early centuries CE has long been linked with the patronage of Jainism and...
The Decline of Jainism in South India
From the seventh century, the fervent Shaiva and Vaishnava bhakti movements challenged and gradually displaced the once-dominant Jainism of...
Jainism under the Delhi Sultanate
Through the turbulent centuries of the Delhi Sultanate, Jain merchants and scholars preserved their tradition, sometimes suffering iconoclas...
Akbar and the Jain Teacher Hiravijaya Suri
Summoned to Fatehpur Sikri in 1582, the Svetambara pontiff Hiravijaya Suri won the Mughal emperor Akbar toward vegetarianism and the protect...
Jain Merchants and the Wealth of Trade
For two thousand years Jain communities have been bound to commerce and finance, their mercantile wealth sustaining temples, libraries and c...
Lonka Shah and the Aniconic Reform
In fifteenth-century Gujarat the layman Lonka Shah challenged image worship as contrary to non-violence, launching the reform that led to th...
The Rise of the Sthanakvasi Tradition
Growing from Lonka Shah's reform, the Sthanakvasi sect took shape in the seventeenth century under ascetics such as Lavji, rejecting images...
Acharya Bhikshu and the Terapanth
In 1760 the reformer Acharya Bhikshu founded the Terapanth at Kelwa in Rajasthan, a tightly organised Svetambara order with a single acharya...
Shrimad Rajchandra and Mahatma Gandhi
The Jain mystic and poet Shrimad Rajchandra became a spiritual guide to the young Gandhi, shaping his understanding of non-violence and trut...
Virchand Gandhi at the Parliament of Religions
In 1893 the young scholar Virchand Gandhi represented Jainism at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, introducing the faith to the...
Acharya Tulsi and the Anuvrat Movement
The ninth Terapanth acharya, Acharya Tulsi, launched the Anuvrat movement in 1949, a programme of ethical self-discipline open to people of...
Acharya Vidyasagar, Monk of the Modern Age
The Digambara acharya Vidyasagar (1946-2024) led a renewal of monastic discipline, learning and social service, and died by the ancient rite...