Reading History with the Tamil Jainas by R. Umamaheshwari

Author:R. Umamaheshwari
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer India, New Delhi

Regarding his views on the general aspects of Jaina religion in Tamil Nadu, he had many things to say:

When ācāryaśrī 182 came here in 2006, at Melcittamur, for cāturmās, 26 of us (monks) came here with him. When ācāryaśrī realised that Tamil people do not know a lot about the Jaina dharma in terms of how to feed a monk, the rituals, etc, and when three of us stayed here, he told us we need to propagate the religion and teach people here how to feed Digambara monks, with bhakti, and how to prepare pure food to give alms to the monks, etc. These things need to be taught to the people here. We said to ācāryaśrī, that is alright, but these people do not know Hindi, and we do not know Tamil. How would we teach? He told us to remain here; it will all be done. Our first cāturmās was in Peramandur in year 2007, after getting leave from the ācāryaśrī. There were a few people from Pondicherry with us whom we taught all these things to. Gradually, over time, people are becoming aware of these things: how to prepare food, how to maintain purity. Yet, there are a lot of differences. But between 2007 and now, a lot has changed. The kind of devotion and faith they had then is much less today. There are more inter-community marriages happening now. Many are still not aware of pujā vidhi (how to offer prayers). They only depend on the priests, irrespective of whether they are right or wrong. In the north, among the Jaina community, people of all ages will come to see the tīrthankara (in the temple), offer prayers at their time of convenience and carry on with their respective professions. Here, people today are only thinking about issues like education of their children, etc, more than they do in the north. Which is a good thing, the kind of importance they give to education. In the north, it is not so. The Jaina people there are wealthy, and many are into trade and business. Here, they were mainly into agriculture; many are still poor and weak, so they have not been able to develop; some have educated their children and acquired some wealth. Since agriculture is not so profitable, and they are faced with drought, some are seeking employment in cities and towns, while the older people stay in villages. People have given their children education, which is alright, but not education in dharma or spirituality. They are only looking at how to make some money. That is because of lack of rains, high cost of labour in agriculture. Tamil Nadu has many old temples and a very ancient history (of Jainism), but people are slowly getting distanced from religion and shifting towards materialism. Girls here are more educated than the boys, who are not very highly educated, and the girls get married to people of their choice. There are fewer children now. Many are not getting married.

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