Articles & Blog
207 articles
The Jain Diaspora Across the World
From East Africa to Britain and North America, Jain merchants and professionals have carried their faith abroad, building temples and commun...
The Manuscript Treasures of Jaisalmer
The Jain bhandars of Jaisalmer in the Rajasthan desert preserve one of the oldest and richest collections of manuscripts in India, some on p...
Women in the History of Jainism
From Mahavira's mother and the nun Chandanbala to countless donors and ascetics, women have been central to Jain religious life throughout i...
Kundakunda and the Digambara Soul
The mystic Kundakunda, revered above all Digambara teachers after the Tirthankaras, gave the tradition its profound philosophy of the pure,...
Umasvati and the Tattvartha Sutra
Umasvati's Tattvartha Sutra, the first systematic Sanskrit summary of Jain doctrine, is the one text revered as authoritative by both Digamb...
Haribhadra and Yashovijaya: Masters of Jain Thought
The scholars Haribhadra and Yashovijaya, separated by a millennium, brought unrivalled breadth and rigour to Jain philosophy, logic and the...
Jainism and the Indus Valley Debate
Some have linked seals and nude standing figures of the Indus Valley civilisation to proto-Jain asceticism, a speculative claim that scholar...
Samantabhadra, Logician and Poet
The Digambara master Samantabhadra pioneered Jain logic and the defence of anekantavada, composing devotional hymns of lasting philosophical...
Shatrunjaya: The Sacred Mountain of Palitana
Crowned by hundreds of temples, the hill of Shatrunjaya above Palitana in Gujarat is the holiest pilgrimage site of Svetambara Jainism.
Acharya Shantisagar and the Digambara Revival
In the early twentieth century Acharya Shantisagar revived the naked ascetic lineage of Digambara monks, which had nearly vanished, reshapin...
Shikharji: The Hill Where Souls Ascended
On Parasnath Hill in Jharkhand, twenty of the twenty-four Tirthankaras attained moksha, making Sammed Shikharji the holiest Digambara and Sh...
Palitana and the City of Temples on Shatrunjaya
The Shatrunjaya hills near Palitana in Gujarat hold hundreds of marble temples clustered along the ridge, the supreme Shvetambara tirtha san...