Chapter VI. Some Concluding Thoughts

In the concluding chapter, we re-visit the original question with which we began this

thesis: what is the secret of these large numbers of female ascetics in Jain mendicant

orders? Having surveyed the gender ideology as it is exhibited in its various code

books, literary geJ:l.tes and popular narratives, having examined its internal

organization, listened to the voices of the sadhvis, and observed the daily lives of

these n'\}ns, several issues may be identified as decisive to the explanation of this

. phenomenon. The interviews with sadhvis illustrate that women (or girls) take diksha

wholly volitionally; that pressure of impoverished parents or lack of marriage

prospects are not what draws these women into asceticism. It is crucial therefore to

attend to the discourses and practices of Jain asceticism in order to understand its

attraction for young unmarried women-for that is precisely the profile of women

who enter Jain ascetic orders.

As pointed out early, Jainism does not stigmatize female renunciation. The Jain

female ascetic does not stand on the shadowy margins of her tradition, but rather at

its very heart. Ideologically, there is no taboo on female renunciation among the

Shvetambars; Digambars too grant her the right to undertake austerities in order to

'improve' her birth. The recognition of female ascetics as one of the four pillars of

the Jain tirtha 'normalizes' her presence and thus she is not marked out as an 'oddity',

or worse, as an obstruction to renunciation, as she is in Brahmanical traditions. This

is a remarkably enabling ideal that allows women to renounce samsara and enter into

a different life without invoking suspicion or derision. The Jain theory of karma­

bandhana, nitjara and moksha, and the heavy responsibility Jain theology places on the

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individual to work for one's salvation serves to legitimize their choice of an ascetic

life.

The lack of stigma-indeed the great deal of honour that attaches to a sadhvi and

her samsaric family who gave her up for the cause of J ainism-also allow a sadhvi to

attract other girls, especially from her extended family, neighbourhood and region, to

the ranks of nuns. This is clearly demonstrated by my field data: 36 of the 65 sadhvis

interviewed had close and distant female relatives in the sadhvi sangha. Kesar

maharaj, the reputed Sthanakvasi sadhvi belonging to a Jat family of Haryana has

drawn several Jat girls from the region into her parivar, such is her prestige. Sadhvis

can thus serve as role models for many younger girls: their lifestyles, comportment,

activities all stand in sharp contrast to what these girls are used to in their familial

lives, or what awaits them after marriage. To paraphrase several sadhvis, many girls

yearned to be just like the sadhvis they encountered, either in their hometown during

caturmas, or on visits to mendicants: ''When shall I be able to wear white clothes like

her? Can I not be like her? If she could win permission from my parents to become a

sadhvi, would I not be able to?" G~'s charisma and her appeal thus also become

decisive in drawing many girls to a sadhvi life. As a young girl in Bangalore, Pragiti

sri, used to visit Dr. Manju sri when she came on a chaturmas to her city. She liked

being in their company and would often visit the sthanak to borrow books or talk to

the sadhvis. She was highly impressed by Dr. Manju sri. One particular encounter

with her stirred in her the desire to renounce:

While talking one day, Manju sri asked me," What is the aim of your

life?" I was 19 at that time and had not thought along these lines at

all. I was in my own world-school, college, and friends. I thought

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that nobody has asked me this question ever before. I began to mull

over it. Then I began to think that I like these sadhvis' life so much, I

like being with them. It is a good life but very difficult. But if we

choose an aim for ourselves than nothing is difficult.

Renunciation opens a world of possibilities for these women that would otherwise

be unavailable to them in households. We have seen in Chapter IV that ascetic life is

construed as a d9main of autonomy, perhaps best encapsulated in Khartar Gacch

sadhvi Kavyaprabha sri's assertion that "we want to live independent lives. Just like

Mira." Only an ascetic life can ensure freedom, independence, unhindered pursuit of

scholarship and atma kafyana. Access to higher education is one firm indicator of the

opportunities inherent in ascetic life (see especially Chapter IV).

Asceticism is seen as a rejection of and refuge from, the demands as well as the

degradations of life in the samsara. We have seen already that implicit in nuns'

rejection of their sexuality and the institutions of marriage and family is also a

criticism of these institutions as oppressive to women and a general disaffection with

the position of women in these structures. Incompatible husbands, demanding in­

laws, self-effacement are all the pitfalls of a ftma!e householders life. Asceticism then

comes to be viewed as an alternative that allows women to take on activities that

would perforce be unavailable to them as daughters, wives and mothers. This life on

the contrary affords them opportunities to undertake studies unencumbered by the

demands of domesticity, to travel widely (in the case of Terapanthi class of novices,

even overseas travel), and to take up social activities and other organizational work.

It provides a sense of self worth through private pursuit of knowledge, devotion to

their own spiritual welfare and the public roles they are called upon to play. Sadhvis

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are able to create spheres of authority and control through asceticism. When I

enquired of the nuns if they missed bearing and raising children-normative roles

into which most girls are socialized and expected to fulfil-all of them invariably

responded that they felt a sense of kinship with the wider world as they were no

longer confined to the closed circle of individual families and households. In a way, it

was expressive of the sentiment that as ascetics they have transcended the restrictive

boundaries of domestic and private sphere. And it is only through the adoption of

this alternative lifestyle that they have been able to do so. In their conservations, Jain

nuns not only emphasized the distant and difficult ideal of liberation, but also the

immediacy of the liberating experience of sqyama and sa'!)lasa:

Even though this individual project of asceticism and liberation involves the

repudiation of worldly ties and relationships, in actual practice, female mendicancy is

sustained through its association with samsara. Asceticism, despite its injunction of

itinerant life and seeking alms for food, does not translate into an adventure into the

unknown. It does not imply an end of security and protection. Unlike Dumont's

solitary renouncer, Jain female ascetics achieve their individuation in an institutional

context. The women's exit from samsaric ties simultaneously inducts them into

alternative relationships of samudqyas, gacchs and parivars, gurus, gurunis and guru­

behans. All this serves to imbue asceticism with a certain familiarity. Jain nuns can

pursue their aspirations, spiritual, scholarly and personal, without having to forego

the warmth of personal relationships. Elderly nuns are cared for by their younger

shishyaas: When I recendy re-visited Jain Mahila Sthanak, Kesar maharaj had been

rendered bed-ridden. A group of nuns was living in the sthanak to nurse her. In

many other cases, younger nuns abandoned their vihara to perform seva to the older

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nuns (see Chapter V). Younger nuns look up to the seruor nuns for motherly

guidance, not only for learning tattva-gyan and Jain theology, but also turn to them for

more quotidian needs. One illustration of this mother-daughter relationship is an

incident related to me by Prafullprabha ji. She told me how her guruni, Sumangla ji

was away on a pravachana tour when she first started her menstrual periods. Unable to

understand the changes in her body, she was in a state of panic till Sumangla ji

arrived and reassure,d her. "She is like a mother to all of us," she reiterated several

times. The ascetic milieu invokes an ersatz familial setting, with its own set of roles,

duties, and relationships. At an emotional level, therefore, despite the very

individualistic nature of the ascetic project, asceticism does not portend loneliness

and alienation.

A relationship of intense reciprocity exists between mendicants and laity. Mendicants

are living embodiments of the Jain ascetic ideal and thus worthy of laity's devotion.

As we have seen, ascetics, including sadhvis are called upon to aid laity's spiritual

journey. Sadhvis on their daily rounds of gochari ask housewives if their cooking

adheres scrupulously to the Jain concept of ahimsa before accepting any food from

them: "Did you use boiled water for cooking and washing? What are the ingredients

that went into its making? Is there anything that could have led to himsa?" This daily

interrogation by sadhvis (and sadhus too when they are in the neighbourhood)

ensures that householders remain committed to the 'Jain way of life' as it were.

The institutional structures of Jain mendicancy are in turn sustained by its interaction

·' with the laity which supports and nurtures mendicancy materially and

organizationally. We have seen in Chapter V how laity is imbricated in everyday life

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of saclhvis,. and how it makes material arrangements for the saclhvi samaj. Seeking

gochari does not mean fending for oneself; vihara is not journeying to unknown lands

without direction and aid. In fact these are patterned activities and in normal

circumstances, there is very litde possibility of saclhvis having to go hungry for lack

of gochari. A young Khartar Gacch sadhvi once told me that she found gochari to be

the most difficult part of sanyasa because one had to finish everything one received

for gochari and she was always worried that she would receive far more than what she

and her fellow saclhvis could possibly eat. (The rule against leftovers derives from the

Jain belief that left over food would be a virtual playground of microbes and thus a

site of himsa). It is incumbent upon the samqj to ensure the survival and sustenance of

the sadhu and sadhvi sangha. In practical terms, vihara does not render saclhvis

vulnerable to physical and sexual threats as they are always accompanied by a

contingent of lay householders, whether paid employees of the various shravak

sanghas or otherwise. Once, four Khartar Gacch sadhvis were mowed down by a

speeding truck on the highway in Jaipur on their way to attend a function on the

occasion of Mahavira Jayanti. At one of the meetings of the Sthanakvasi sangha that

followed soon after this tragic accident, monks and nuns repeatedly reminded the

assembled samaj how they were duty bound to protect their mendicants and to

ensure· safe passage to them during vihara. "What is the samaj's thought on this?

What arrangements are shravaks making for us? Or do we have to fear accidents

every time we step on the highway?" thundered Mithilesh Muni from the podium.

This incident points to how mendicants expect the samqj to protect them, to virtually

act as their guardians. This is true for more everyday needs too. Sadhvi Sayamratna

said that she only needs to ask a 'shravak for any of her needs to be fulfilled:

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I need reading glasses, for instance. I ask shravaks just as their

daughter would, and they gift it to me, as they would their

daughter. We may have left the samsara but are still in many

ways part of it. I cannot develop an arrogant attitude and act

superior. I still rem~n their daughter.

Jain laity derives a sense of pride and confidence from the severe codes-including

complete disavowal of sexuality-of their ascetics. The need for a demonstrable

proof of the 'purity' of its ascetics has implied that a system of rules to regulate the

sexuality of its monastic community was evolved and put in place since the earliest

times. These codes regulate the interaction between sadhus and sadhvis, as well as

between female ascetics and malegrihasthas. Usually, male and female mendicants will

not stay in the same building unless absolutely necessary, and there is to be no

interaction between them after dark. As noted earlier, there can be no physical touch

even between elderly sadhvis and youngest of boys, including toddlers. These

restrictions and the very publi~ nature of their interaction (guided by these strict

codes of course) render Jain mendicants, and especially sadhvis, as models of celibate

conduct. Though scandals-and gossip-are not entirely unknown, Jain mendicancy

is viewed by samaj and girls who might wish to undertake Stf)'ama as a safe haven,

where sadhvis' chastity would be protected.

Fractured Discourses, Fractured Practices: Prestige, Dominance and Power

This said, one must not lose sight of the fact that Jainism is not a single, unified

discourse which privileges a positive evaluation of the female ascetic. The sheer

volume of textual sources pertaining to the woman's question in the Jain tradition­

the ferocity of the rhetoric with which women's liberation has been debated

246

complicates the picture. Even when Shvetambar authors have defended the right of

women to seek and attain salvation, they are not contesting the Digambar attribution

of noxious qualities to women's bodies and minds. Their contention simply is that

these negative attributes do not impede women's ascetic project. We have seen also

the fashioning of special rules for disciplining and controlling female ascetics, as in

the Brihatkalpa Sutra, for authors of these early texts deemed women as essentially

libidinous and fickl~ creatures. (See Chapter III for details). Surprisingly, a section of

sadhvis echo such a gynophobia and revulsion for the female bodily processes.

Sadhvi Dininani ji for instance attributed particularly morbid features to the

menstrual cycle:

... We consider it absolutely impure. DU11ng this time we do

not read any Sutras. We even recommend complete silence. If

you utter any words during this time you accrue sins. . . . If

you are in the samsara, then you should not cook or enter the

kitchen: it kills all the food. Nurses are not allowed to enter

the operation theatre if they are bleeding: the operation may

go wrong. Even savouries and pickles may be destroyed if

prepared by women having menses. The papads may turn

red ... flowers may wilt [if tended to be women having

menses].

It may be noted that the taboo of menstrual pollution has real implications in the

lives of sadhvis. One reason why Tapa Gacch sadhvis lag behind in their access to

higher education is the heavy weight placed on the terrifying and knowledge erasing

qualities of menstrual blood. (See Chapter IV for how a sadhvi from this sect feared

that she might not be able to appear for her examinations on account of

menstruation. This dissuaded her from enrolling for a higher degree.)

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Women's supposedly inferior physical, mental and spiritual capacities are routinely

deployed as arguments for legitimizing the bias against sadhvis in the very

organization of the mendicant orders and a range of practices; vandana 'l(javahara and

male acharyaship, being two most glaring examples (see Chapter II). As noted

above, such a cw):Ural construction of female roles and activities may also be ~ ...

internalized by many sadhvis. Among Murtipujak sadhvis, there is an all-pervasive

belief that the relations of domination and subordination between the genders must

administer both the spiritual and the worldly realms alike. The current mode of

van dana 'l(javahara reflects accurately the social structures that have existed for ages.

("Would not have Bhagwan Mahavira ordained equal status for men and women if

he had deemed it correct?, asked the Tapa Gacch sadhvi Sayamratna sri) For these

nuns, the practice in its present form symbolizes the stability of the familiar world.

Its inversion-with sadhus bowing to sadhvis-would be tantamount to distortion

and perversion of the very basis and fabric of society.1 It would unfetter the sadhvis

from the authority of the male mendicants and lead to the contravention of

"maryadd'. For the maintenance of norms and preservation of honour, it was

necessary that vandana 'l(javahara remain unaltered and untouched.2 Already, according

to Mamta maharaj of the Tapa Gacch, the 'modem' woman enjoys a great many

freedoms; so much so in fact that "she has crossed all boundaries and cares no

longer for maryada. Now if she is even stops bowing to men and instead men begin

to bow to her, to pay obeisance t? her, the whole structure of society will come

unstuck."

1 Statements such as this were frequendy made by Tapa Gacch sadhvis: "Samqj mein vikar aa jqyega, web bigadjqyega." 2 Based on interviews with Sadhvi Shrutadarshita and Prafullprabha at Atmanand Jain Sabha, Roop Nagar, Delhi.

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Once while discussing this issue, I asked a learned Khartar Gacch sadhvi in Jaipur if

sadhutva could be measured according to gender. Her reply, and indeed that of a large

number of sadhvis, was this: Till the time one attains moksha, even those who have

renounced the world to devote themselves to spiritual pursuits, continue to oper~te

within the samsara. Sadhu sangha needs to be organized (f!Javasthita) so that the

discipline of Jain dharma is not compromised; maintenance of discipline demands

that the sangha be administered according to some rules (maryada), of which vandana

f!Javahara is one. 3

How is such a fractured discourse (at once positively enabling and negatively

obstructive) and : fractured reality (simultaneously empowered and disempowered) . resolved in the subjectivities and identities of female ascetics? How do sadhvis

reconcile their own attraction towards sanyasa in light of blatandy misogynist

utterances and practices? According to Sherry Ortner, it is important to examine how

women negotiate their identities within a prestige system that values male over

female. She constructs a three-tiered system of hegemonies, all of which intersect to

determine women's actual position in a particular social structure.4 The first

dimension of differential gender positions is that of relative prestige. A prestige

system is described by Ortner as that which "defines the ultimate goals and purposes

of life for actors in that society. It defines what they are (or should be) trying to

accomplish or to become and defines how they can and cannot go about that

project." What is at stake here is a culturally coded relative ranking of sexes, and does

3 Interview at Motidungri,Jaipur. 4 Sherry B. Ortner, "Gender Hegemonies", in Cultural Critique, No. 14, Winter, 1989-1990, pp 35-80.

249

not have to do with the quality of relationship between the sexes. The second grid is

that of dominance, and describes a particular kind of relationship that inheres

between men and women, wherein men are able to exert control over women's lives

and women feel compelled to follow their authority. This domination is backed by

authority/ legitimacy ?f varying kinds and degrees. Finally, she speaks of the domain

of female power. This concept presupposes that women are able to "control some

spheres of their own and others' existence and to determine some aspects of their

and others' behaviour" regardless of the prestige system's privileging of the male,

and the overwhdming concentration of power in the hands of men.

One response of those working in the area of gender to Ortner's theoretical

formulations was to "balance. off prestige and power". This was achieved by

demonstrating that while prestige systems may be skewed in favour of men, women

could and did enjoy de facto power, such that a "power/ prestige balance between

men and women's spheres" could be envisaged. However, such a balancing may only

be half an exercise since we would be ignoring the "multiplicity of logics" of prestige

operating in a single cultural system.

Another related response by scholars of gender and religion has been to focus, if a

tad excessively, on autonomous spaces of female power in order to rehabilitate

women's voices. Anne Gold therefore draws up a typology of scholarship on gender

in South Asia, classifying Type I as those who unfailingly highlight "endemic,

systemic, unmitigated devaluation and consequent disempowerment of women at

every level. .. " Against this enterprise, she lauds the Type II scholars who portray

250

women's multiple modes of living, negotiating and imagining gender identities.5

'Resistance' and 'subversion' are terms that surface often in the writings of Type II

authors. These spheres of power are mostly cultural ventures: women's songs, stories

and words, which are seen as repositories of female agency and deployed as

'weapons of the weak' by women.

Indeed, it was suggested to me, more than once, if Jain sadhvis could be seen as a

case of 'indig<rnous feminism'.6 Could we not ask if Jain sadhvis are some kind of

home-grown feminists who forage their cultural-religious repertoire for more

enabling and empowering female roles, and find this in the role of the sadhvi-that

spheres of autonomy balanced off the misogynism inherent in Jain texts? Whilst the

female power argument is seductive, we need to pay closer attention to multiple

logics Ortner alludes to, and to the interaction between systems of prestige and

power to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of what draws these girls to

asceticism.

Let us begin by examining the prestige system among the Jains. First to be noted is,

as we have done already, its ambiguity and crisscrossing axes of male prestige and

gender equality (at least on the question of women's salvation). An important feature

5 Ann Grodzins Gold, "From Demon Aunt to Gorgeous Bride: Women Portray Female Power in a North Indian Festival Cycle," in Leslie and McGee (eds.), 2000, op. cit., p. 204. 6 Lawrence Babb raises the possibility of such a characterization in the case of the Brahma Kumari movement.6 He argues that at least one of the significant goals of the movement is the liberation of women, and views Brahma Kumaris' avowal of chastity and renunciation­resulting in withdrawal of sexual rights to the husband-as an expression of a "radical and unacceptable autonomy''. Further, Babb demonstrates that the Brahma Kumari movement offered a critique of the Hindu family and of the position of women within it. But in so far as it evolved such a critique, it was rooted in the Hindu religious culture and their criticism of oppressive patriarchal institutions was tinged deeply by the ''world outlook of Hindu tradition." Babb, 1984, op. cit., p. 403.

251

of Jain prestige system is the intrinsic value attached to asceticism, bearers of which

are viewed by the cUlture as superior, venerable and worthy. This multi-layeredness

of the prestige system allows sadhvis to extract those elements from their culture

which value their renunciation and religious roles. The sadhvis' subjectivities are

forged in not simply through the gender values of its prestige system but also

through latching on to and privileging ascetic values as supreme.

The negative qualities associated with women's bodies (the ideological bedrock of

women's subordination) are transcended through the experience of asceticism. The

nuns have detached themselves from their bodies and moved onto the level of the

soul. They distinguish themselves from laywomen whose bodies and lives are

dedicated to worldly ends: marriage, birthing, childcare. Asceticism is characterized

by detaching oneself from the pains of the bodies and its substitution by the

pleasures of the soul. Pleasures of the body in the samsara are not really pleasures but

pain, which those in the samsara fail to recognize. As ascetics, they have realized how

momentary these pleasures are, and how karmically harmful they are. Nuns are

devoted only to the cause of purification of soul. As sadhvi Kavyaprabha said: "All

these worldly pleasures are ephemeral: the moon shines but for a brief while, the

nights are dark after that. We may lG>ok in the mirror and feel proud of our beauty­

but ultimately we have to leave all this behind and go. So why not be prepared in

advance?"

Asceticism is a demanding ideal. Its regimen requires one, above all, to control the

body: to stop feeling cold in the severest of winter, to ignore the blazing hot tarmac

whilst walking barefoot in the hot summer months, and to disregard the visceral

252

pleasures of a good meal in favour of gochari. But, according to sadhvis, these

hardships pale in comparison to the merit one accumulates for one's soul. "We can

achieve true happiness only when we renounce the body and its desires," reiterated

sadhvi Shrutadarshita (Mamta maharaj) several times.

What we are experiencing in this ascetic life is no pain at all;

this is actually pleasure for the soul. Our body is merely a

temporary abode. It does not belong to us really-it is like a

rented house. However much you repair and decorate it, it is

a futile exercise. It is not yours to possess. We have left all

this behind to work for our souls.

Sadhvis' comparison of their life with a householder's life, and their critique of

existing institutions and the enumeration of possibilities inherent in sqyama, are all

steeped in a peculiarly Jain ascetic tradition. Is it not impossible to work for the

welfare of one's soul when duties towards husband, children and even in-laws have

to be dispensed with? Is not a mother worried more about her child's tiffin than her

atma? Thus the tenets of Jainism can be followed truly only if one renounces the

samsara and samsaric obligations.

Sadhvis invariably and unfailingly cite the urgency of working for their souls as the

principal motivating factor for their taking to sanyasa. Though many sadhvis bring up

issues such as anxiety about marriage 01 airagyapurna, Sambodhi sri, Niranjana sri,

Malli sri and others); fear oflosing all control over their lives (Akshay sri, Divyaguna

sri, Manju sri, et a~; urge for an independent career (Ranjana, Niranjana sri, Malli sri

etc); desire for scholarship and learning, in their discussions with me-they insist

upon vairagya and atma kafyana as central to their renunciation. Nuns thus construct a

collective discourse around the experience of asceticism. Crucial to these narratives

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are the episodes of how they convinced their parents of the intensity of their vairagya.

It must be demonstrated by distancing oneself from the body and its cravings:

sleeping on hard mats or floor; undertaking arduous vratas; giving up 'normal'

activities like watching cinema or listening to radio; and wearing plain clothes;

equanimity in face of threats-and sometimes violence-by parents (see Chapter

! IV). As all sadhvis told me, "Parents will test you before giving permission for diksha.

It is a hard life. They can't give you permission till you convince them of the

firmness of their resolve." Pragiti sri said that her parents found it hard to believe

that she wished to renounce , because she was fond of pretty clothes and a

comfortable life. Only when she had displayed the genuineness of her vairagya and

her commitment to renunciation through a variety of practices (which

communicated her disregard for physical comforts) did they relent.

As an example of how the axis of asceticism may be selected in order to override the

gender dimension of social honour, let me quote here Aryika Bahubali, a Digambar

sadhvi's conversation with me on the Digambar position on women's salvation:

"Striniroana is an oxymoron. It is like saying that a barren woman gave birth to a

child. Women lack the physical strength needed to undertake the austerities that

munis can. They ca~'t rid themselves of the shame of their bodies. Can you ever

imagine a naked sadhvi? It is unthinkable. And without the renunciation of clothes,

there is no true scryama." Her monologue follows the script up till this point. Then,

she adds: "In the present era, there is no liberation for men either." Thus even

though the Digambar values may place men above women, given the lack of

possibility of moksha in this age, both male and female mendicants are essentially

engaged in the same enterprise, without hope for liberation in this birth. Similarly,

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when I quizzed sadhvis on the proscription on sadhvis to read an ancient text,

Drishtivada/ sadhvis casually asked me not to mull over the question since the said

text was no longer extant anyway.8

Vandana f!Yavahara receives a similar treatment. The ascetic project reqUltes

effacement of the self and ego; venerating the sadhus, no matter how young or old,

displays foremost the qualities of egolessness. Vandana therefore serves as an

excellent device for gaining nitjarrl and dharma labha10• Refusal to bow to all munis

would not only violate the order ordained by Mahavira, but also militates against the

most fundamental of Jain ascetic precepts: the development of indifference and

equanimity. To be rankled by the thought of paying veneration to those one

considers one's junior is a sign that a sadhvi, unable to obliterate her ego, still

harbours feelings of self-centredness and arrogance, and is therefore faltering on the

path of purification. Tapa Gacch sadhvi Dinmani sri thus holds vandana l!Yavahara to

be a sign of her ascetic qualities: "I do vandana to all sadhus with grace and

politeness. It never enters my mind that I am senior so I should not bow to him."

\X!hen I pressed on, asking why it must be demanded of sadhvis alone to

demonstrate their spiritual worth by performing salutations to sadhus and not vice

versa, she concluded: "\X!hy should I be bothered by their [sadhus1 problems. I am

able to cut at my karma-bandhanas by doing vandana and I am happy with that." A

venerable Shraman Sangh sadhvi advised me to focus my research on the strict

discipline which sadhvis follow since vandana 1(Yavahara was a non-issue: ''Write about

7 Sangave, op. cit, p. 170. 8 Interviews with Khartar Gacch sadhvis in Moti Dungri,Jaipur. 9 The wearing away of karma through austerities. 10 Gain of merit.

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our nryama, our vratas and our dedication to sqyama. Rest is irrelevant." She then went

on to catalogue the various mahavratas and other vows of restraints (samitis and

guptis), determined to change the topic.11

All of these serve to build a discourse that privileges a sadhvi's vairagya over her '

femaleness.

Creating Counter-hegemonies:

While a majority of sadhvis chose an alternate principle of prestige ranking (that of

asceticism) to supersede gender as a status principle in their everyday lives, there are

also others-albeit a small group-who are actively fashioning a counter hegemony

and trying to breach the principle of male hegemony. through this alternate ranking

system. The votaries of this model have been a group of sadhvis belonging to the

Shraman Sangh of Sthanakvasi sect, Dr. Manju sri and her disciples. These nuns .

present a strident critique of discriminatory practices within Jain monastic

organization, denouncing male dominance as a contravention of ascetic principles.

Manju sri and her shisf?yaas argue that Mahavira claimed the superiority of a person's

spiritual capacities over ascriptive criteria such as caste and gender. The mendicant

can and should be judged only by the length of their austerities and asceticism. The

flow of reverential greetings should always proceed from junior to senior ascetics,

regardless of mendicant's gender, or even their ages-for indeed even if a child were

to be initiated prior to the parents, the rule would not alter. In other words, seniority

could be determined only through precedence in sqyama. For these sadhvis, the

creation of a separate female monastic order under Mahavira, its unique

11 Sadhvi Nidhikripa, Interview at Kolhapur Jain Sthanak, Delhi.

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administrative mechanism with chief nun Chandanbala at its head, with no

interference from the male acharyas-references to which are to be found in the

earliest of literature-serves as proof of the autonomy guaranteed to the nuns'

orders.12 Early monastic rules envisaged two kinds of situations in which vandana was

to be performed: all those who had accomplished sadhutva (virtues of the ascetic)

were worthy of greetings by all mendicants and laity alike; second, senior sadhvis

were to be reverentially greeted by junior sadhvis and likewise for sadhus.13 Thus in

both situations, it was the principle of "sqyama jyeshthd' (seniority on the basis of

asceticism) rather than "lingajyeshthd' (seniority determined by gender) that prevailed.

Dr. Manju sri cites early Agamic literature dealing with ascetic codes and books of

discipline, especially the Cheda Sutras, which unequivocally claim the pre-eminence of

seniority by diksha and asceticism.

These nuns bemoan the gradual marginalization of this principle of ranking (of

ascetic seniority) and its subsequent replacement by the principle of male superiority,

wherein male mendicants were eternally fixed as the revered category (vandaniya and

ptfianiya) and female mendicants as the one to offer the reverences (vandaka and

ptfiaka). According Manju sri, Shastric evidence stands in conflict with the current

insistence that nuns continue to offer reverences to all sadhus regardless of their

seniority, and is unacceptable to sadhvis like herself, who declared that her disciples

would not bow before any younger sadhus. As she said: "young ones have a right

over my affections, not reverences."

12 Akshay sri, "Bhagwan Mahavira ka Nari Vishqyaka Drishtikotl' and "Sadhvi Va~ Upekshit F;yon?" Both unpublished ru.1:icles. 13 Acharya sri Mahapragna ji, "Bhagwan Mahavira ki Sangha Vjavasthd' in Jain Prakash, 23 May 1995.

257

To the argument that gender inequality is inscribed in the very scriptural tradition of

Jainism, these nuns' riposte comes closest to a feminist critique. Sadhvi Akshay sri,

Manju sri's articulate disciple, reminded me thatJainism remained for many centuries

a largely oral tradition, with Mahavira's sermons compiled into texts much later by

men, who despite their scholarship, brought their biases into the exercise of

redaction. The writings of learned sadhvis like Mahasati Yakkini have been

marginalized by this tradition dominated by men, she said.

This is a. view shared overwhelmingly by the V eeraytan sadhvis headed by Acharya

Chandana ji. Let me quote here Sadhvi Shubham ji's lucid correspondence with me:

Scriptures were written in a patriarchal society. I think that if

you are sincere in your religious practices you can reach the

highest spiritual point. Liberation is concerned with the soul

not the body. All souls are equal and whether it is in the body

of a man or woman it makes litde difference. The soul is what

is worshipped and remembered, not the body or prosperity.

The 19th tirthankara Mallinath ji was a woman herself.

Mahavira Bhagwan's female disciple Arya Chandanaji had

36,000 followers while Gautam Swamiji had 14,000.

Her guru behen, Sadhvi Shilapi ji was of the view that "these prejudices arose due to

interpolation by a male dominated society."

Of course such attempts at breaching cannot be accomplished easily and without

opposition. At a Shraman Sangh sammelan held at Pune in 1987, Dr. Manju sri led a

minor movement against the practice. She convened a separate general body meeting

of the sadhvis attended by 77 sadhvis, prior to the main council in which a resolution

258

against the current mode of vandana 1!Yavahara was placed. After a lengthy debate, 74

of the 77 sadhvis voted with the proposal. However, since it was time for gocari, the

sadhvis did· not formally sign their assent to a written document. But upon their

return to their gurus, the sadhvis received a strong reprimand from the munis who t i

accused them of refusing to respect the 'elders'-the monks. "Don't you wish to do

vandana to us?", the munis asked the sadhvis of their respective parivars and

samudqyas. The sadhvis were thus shamed into retracting their acquiescence to Dr.

Manju sri's proposal by the acharyas.14 So finally, despite the widespread sentiment

among sadhvis against the practice, official authorization for ending the inequitable

vandana 1(javahara could not be secured. Making a prescient connection between the

continuation of these practices, Manju sri linked it unequivocally to the question of

power:

\Vhen I cite all textual evidence in my support, the sadhus

have no answers. Either they are condescending, or they get

upset with me. But they have no solution to this. Once a

sadhu said to me, 'today you are demanding that this vandana

1(javahara be scrapped, tomorrow you will want sadhvis to

become acharyas as well.' I said 'of course, that is our right

and we will demand it!' He replied that this was precisely the

reason that the monks were against the relaxation on this rule.

They are afraid that they will lose their power because numerically

we sadhvis outnumber them. [Emphasis added].

\Vhile these issues may not have won popular support from within the sadhvi samqj,

the very public nature of the debate has indeed forced a re-think, at least within the

Shraman Sangh. Upadhyaya Ravindta Muni ji, a senior monk of the Shraman Sangh

14 Based on interviews with Dr Manju sri and her shisf?yaas.

259

confided that there were plans afoot to grant sadhvis a greater role in the

administrative structure of the sangha. He also agreed that a section of nuns was

unhappy about the current mode of vandana, but sought to allay any suggestion that

monks insisted on being venerated. "It is an expression of mutual respect and

warmth, and can never be forced." But clearly, such a shift in thinking has been

prompted by the sustained discussion that sadhvis like Manju sri forced upon the

community.

Whether nuns mute male dominance and prestige or actively look to subvert it, in

the end, they are able to create some spheres in their lives over which they feel they

have control. Their position as moral guides for laity also gives them a sense of.

control over others' lives. That is to say, they are able to carve out spheres of female

power. This is best summarized in Akshay sri's assertion: "Even religion may be

patriarchal, but at least here in this life of sqyama we can ignore this for most times by

focusing on our own atma kafyana and learning. We can remain aloof from all this."

Indeed this positive self evaluation is also reflected in the public domain. Let me cite

here a devotional song composed by the Digambar ariyka, Dakshmati, in honour of

her preceptor, Chandramati. mata ji.

The Aarti of Chandramati mata ji

We all venerate thee, 0' Chandramati mata ji,

We venerate thee; and gaze at your wondrous personage.

260

Born in Navan Shehar to mother Brijeshwari and father Sri

Sitaram,

The foremost miracle of twentieth century,

Took diksha in Nag~r town,

Ocean of wisdom, she bestows merit on all her followers,

She glows, our Chandramati mata ji does,

We venerate thee ...

She drives away all our problems,

Our Ganini is full of virtues,

w~ venerate thee 0 0 0

A storehouse of knowledge, Her words are so sweet,

Her nectar of knowledge flows to all of us,

Her sermons grant us grace,

We venerate thee ...

Beautiful Chandramati ji had no interest in the world,

No worldly attachments did she have in her heart,

She left her family and friends,

We Venerate thee ...

Compassion is her second nature,

She is the bearer of the Three Jewels,

May you live for thousands of years,

We venerate thee ...

We light golden lamps in your honour,

We sing in your honour,

We seek refuge at your feet,

Dakshmati sings your praises,

We all venerate thee.15

t5 Translation mine.

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Let us for a moment now rewind to the ceremony of initiation (diksha) into a sadhvi

order. It is an example par excellence of the prestige an ascetic enjoys in the

community. Though Anne Vallely writes that female renouncers do not set out to be

cultural icons, we may discern a process of iconicization underway in the elaborate

public ceremonies surrounding the ordination, especially the parade that precedes it.

Diksha merits this great public celebration because it upholds the Jain ideal of

..

renunciation. The account of Preeti's diksha in Chapter V attests to the high regard

her enterprise is held in. Such is its intrinsic worth that a vairagin exudes a certain

degree of auspiciousness for the householders. There was a virtual stampede at the

conclusion of Preeti Jain's mehendi ceremony, as suhagins (married women whose

husbands are alive) rushed forth to partake of the henna from the pot Preeti had

used to daub sadhus and sadhvi with. Again, on the following day, during the shobha

yatra and the rite of diksha, there was a scramble to collect the coins Preeti was

throwing around into the audience and the parade.16 A leading sravaka told me that

they would keep these coins in the tfj'ori (locker) as it would lead to a manifold

increase in their wealth. But the shobha yatra is not simply for the community to

participate in-its purpose is also to communicate to a wider audience about this

extraordinary event, when a young, beautiful girl is going to give up all comforts for

a lifetime of severe austerities. The extensive photographing (and now the video

recording) of the event also freezes this idealized behaviour for display and

propagation. In Agra, large announcements about the imminent diksha of three girls

in the V eeraytan sect of Sthanakvasi order began appearing in the local newspapers a

few days prior to the diksha. Photographs of the three girls always accompanied these

16 This throwing of coins is a simulation and re-enactment of Mahavira's renunciation, where he flung his wealth away in an act of ryaga.

262

insertions with a caption below giving their names that of their family's (See Images

6.1 and 6.2). The photographs are typical studio portraits instandy recognizable to us

as belonging to the genre of matrimonial photography (the kind parents in India

would get prepared to circulate amongst prospective bridegrooms and their

families-a demure smile, light jewellery, sari and the head tilted just so.) The

effect-and I suspect, also the intention-of these photos is to heighten the contrast

between the girls' present worldly existence and the ascetic life they were fast

approaching. Besides, the packaging the diksharthis in pretty pictures and their

broadcast through the local media also staves off any aspersions that these girls are

resorting to a lifetime of asceticism out of worldly compulsions, such as poverty or

unattractive looks etc. It foregrounds at the same time the girls' choice and the pull

of the ascetic path of Jainism. An ideal vairagin is one who is poised to happily sever

all ties with her family, kin and friends; her bridal dress, her hennaed hands, and the

heavy jewellery-all gesture at the possibilities she chooses to leave behind.

Possibilities of marriage and of a life where the body is decorated, pampered and

celebrated for the sake of worldly pleasures; possibilities which are expunged with

the change of clothes. During the shobha yatra, Preeti's mother followed the cavalcade

lisdessly, occasionally erupting into loud sobs. Later, as Preeti took off her garland

and delivered her diksha speech (see Chapter V), her mother and aunt began to cry

out loudly sensing these to be the last moments of their daughter's samsaric life and

their parent-child bond. Preeti however remained supremely unmoved to the

unfolding of this emotional drama. Her remoteness from this emotional turmoil was

conveyed through her joyous smile and her gaze transfixed at a distance, above and

beyond the audience. She had trained herself to be indifferent to the desires and pulls

263

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of the body and mind. In short, she has become an ideal vairagin, fit to be hailed and

venerated by the samqj.

A group of laywomen. explained to me the significance of shringara prior to diksha.

"We dress her up :irl new clothes everyday, adorn her with beautiful jewellery and

apply make-up. A girl should feel that she has fulfilled all her desires before she is

ordained. No feminine desires [for good clothes and jewellery] must be left

unfulfilled. Koi armaan nahi rehna chah!Je."11 Having satiated her desires thus, she must

now concentrate on the taming of these desires and work towards the purification of

the soul. No desire must slip through the wall of ascetic fortitude. If asc~ticism

begets social honour for the sadhvi.and her family, then admission of weakness and

unwillingness to continue living in Sai!Jasa can bring disgrace. Most sadhvis were

reluctant to discuss any particular cases where ascetics may have returned to the

samsara, insisting instead that only the unfortunate ones who failed to recognize the

worth of sqyama ever turned their back to it. I will make reference to one incident

here which is crucial to our discussion. In 2006, Riddhi sri, a 21-year-old Jain sadhvi

went missing from Amravati, 150 kilometres from Nagpur, where she was stationed

for chaturmas with two senior sadhvis, Chetna sri and Vidya sri.18 It turned out later

that Riddhi sri had become intimate with a young man in Sangli (where the sadhvis

were in residence earlier), who had followed her to Amravati on the pretext of

serving her. She had eloped wit~ him in the early hours of the morning. Riddhi sri

had devised .her escape ingeniously, making it appear a case of spiritual epiphany and

disappearance. Next morning, a pile of ashes and bones were discovered in her room

17 In personal conversation with the female residents of Atma V allabh society, Rohini. 18 "Jain Sadhvi Disappears" in the daily newspaper, DNA, 16 October 2006.

264

whilst the carpet and sheets under' the pile remained unscathed. Sadhvi Chetna sri

claimed that she had seen a strong light emanating from her room and that her

disappearance was a "case of divine power". Even some lay Jains were convinced

that the incident was a miracle. Adding further grist to the miracle theory was a letter

seized from her room, which read: ''Jeene se pehle socha kar, kya kama hai m"!Jhe? Marne

se pehle socha kar, ~a k!Ja hai maine? Varna jine-mame se koi fayda nahi." (Think, before

you live, what do I want to do? Think, before you die, what have I achieved?

Otherwise there's no point in living or dying.) On the calendar on the wall, the date

of disappearance, 14'th October, was encircled in red, and the word, siddhi (liberation)

scribbled alongside it.

It was obvious that Riddhi had eloped with her paramour but fearing social reprisal

had manufactured a version of her disappearance which was cast in the very language

she had been trained in for the past six years or more, when she took diksha at the

age of 14. Death of a mendicant is usually described as "lop ho jand'-literally

vanishing or evaporation. Prior to Riddhi's disappearance had been a series of

sallekhana (voluntary embracing of death). Riddhi had attempted to place herself in

the same tradition by devising her (literal) vanishing act as the apogee of her ascetic

career, and not its truncation.

The sensational case ended in ignominy for the sadhvi who along with her lover was

recovered and arrested; sadhvi's family in a village in Ajmer district in Rajasthan too

remained mired in scandal.

265

I choose these two cases-one '?f initiation into, and another of leaving asceticism-

in order to highlight the continuities and ruptures between sadhvis and laywomen.

While asceticism involves the inversion of some womanly roles (that of the mother

and wife; most notably), there are also significant overlaps between the two roles. j

The production of an,idealized sadhvi actually closely mirrors the manner in which a

'good girl' worthy of marriage into a respectable Jain family is defined through her

conduct. Josephine Reynell has described how public demonstrations by young,

unmarried Jain girls come to signify sexual purity and honour.19 By attending large

ceremonial gatherings, listening to pravachanas, indulging in fasting, a girl emphasizes

her attachment to the Jain values of renunciation, her ability to discipline her desires

and her impeccable 'virginal' credentials. All of these place her advantageously in the

marriage circuit. Thus young marriageable Jain girls must internalize the qualities of a

true Jain sadhvi and model their conduct likewise.

Both householdership and asceticism are culturally prescribed roles for women.

Asceticism is certainly an alternative for women, but one that is coded through Jain

cultural values. This is not to deny that women are attracted to saf!YaSa for a variety of

personal reasons, as we have discussed before, or that it should not be legitimately

viewed as a rejection of marriage and family by these women; neither can the fact

that female ascetics are able to create autonomous domains of authority be

underplayed. These are all crucial and valid points. But in the end, the very legitimacy

of the institution of female asceticism, and the way in which the same!} upholds it and

sustains it renders female asceticism into a socially approved alternative institution.

t9 See Josephine Reynell, op. cit.

266

Vairagins do not hav:e to militate against social norms to be able to take diksha-they

have to convince all of the truth and strength of their vairagya.

267