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1	Aradhakamurtil/Adhisthayakamurti: Popular Piety, Politics, and the Medieval Jain Temple Portrait Laughlin, Jack C. 11 1900 (has links) <p>Many aspects of medieval Western Indian temple art have been subject to scholarly attention. One type of temple-image which has been identified, but heretofore unstudied, is the stone portrait. I have gathered evidence of more than 200 images of historical lay people and ascetics, extant and/or from about 60 inscriptions. Some of the images are Hindu, but most are Jain.</p> <p>In this thesis, I undertake the first comprehensive study of the 'Western Indian portrait', emphasizing Jain examples. My approaches to the portraits are straightforward. First, I divide my study into analyses of images portraying the laity, and images portraying monks. Second, I consider 1) the religiosity and 2) the historical contexts behind certain lay and monastic portraits.</p> <p>The evidence of Jain monks' portraits is most significant. Notably, one-third of monks' portraits were donated by other monks. On the one hand, evidence indicates that certain monks donated portraits of their brethren to generate good karma for the portrait-subjects, in order to secure heavenly rebirth for those subjects. On the other hand, evidence indicates that certain portraits donated by monks represent the alleged divinity of the portrait-subjects, asserted in order to foster a cult of the dead for material and political gain (over monks from rival lineages).</p> <p>Thus, my research has uncovered some unexpected facets of Jain monasticism. It is commonly believed that Jainism is unswervingly dedicated to world-renunciation and the most severe austerities for the attainment of liberation from the cycle of rebirth. My research is significant in that it reveals a much different picture, one in which some monks shared the laity's concern for the acquisition of good karma in order to attain the felicity of heaven, and one in which certain monks involved themselves in very worldly political affairs.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Piety politics jain temple Religion
2	An Ethnographic Study of Sectarian Negotiations among Diaspora Jains in the USA Mehta, Venu Vrundavan 29 March 2017 (has links) This thesis argued that the Jain community in the diasporic context of the USA has invented a new form of Jainism. Sectarian negotiations are the distinguishing marks of the diaspora Jain community and their invented form of Jainism. Based on ethnographic study that is, interviews and observations conducted at four different sites (Jain temples/communities) from June-August 2016, the thesis examined the sectarian negotiations among the diaspora Jain community in the USA and the invented Jain tradition that is resulting from these negotiations. The central questions of the research on which this thesis is based were: 1) what are the levels, processes and results of sectarian negotiations within the Jain diaspora community in the USA, and 2) what is the nature and characteristic of the new form of Jainism, the invented tradition; and how do Jains in the USA experience and use it. Jainism Jain Diaspora US Jain Diaspora US Jain Communities Jain Identity Common Jain Identity Jain Sects Sectarian Inter-Sectarian Cross-Sectarian Multi-Sectarian Jain Philosophy Pathshala Anekantvada Jain Temple Jain Society Jain Community Jain Center Sectarian Negotiations Invented Tradition New Form of Jainism Diaspora Studies Jainism in America Jainism in the US Asectarian Indian Diasporas Invention of New form of Jainism Ethnographic Study of Jains in the USA Ethnography Ethnographic Study of US Jain Diaspora Arts and Humanities Religion

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Aradhakamurtil/Adhisthayakamurti: Popular Piety, Politics, and the Medieval Jain Temple Portrait

An Ethnographic Study of Sectarian Negotiations among Diaspora Jains in the USA