Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual CultureWhat does it mean to worship beings that one believes are completely indifferent to, and entirely beyond the reach of, any form of worship whatsoever? How would such a relationship with sacred beings affect the religious life of a community? Using these questions as his point of departure, Lawrence A. Babb explores the ritual culture of image-worshipping Svetambar Jains of the western Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Jainism traces its lineages back to the ninth century B.C.E. and is, along with Buddhism, the only surviving example of India's ancient non-Vedic religious traditions. It is known and celebrated for its systematic practice of non-violence and for the intense rigor of the asceticism it promotes. A unique aspect of Babb's study is his linking of the Jain tradition to the social identity of existing Jain communities. Babb concludes by showing that Jain ritual culture can be seen as a variation on pan-Indian ritual patterns. In illuminating this little-known religious tradition, he demonstrates that divine "absence" can be as rich as divine "presence" in its possibilities for informing a religious response to the cosmos. |
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ācārya ahimsa Ahmedabad ascetic asceticism aṣṭprakārī pūjā Bhairav bhāv Bhinmal birth Brāhmaṇ Caityavāsīs caste cetic Chagansāgar chapter clan context Cort cosmos cult dādābāṛī Dādāgurus deities devotees Digambar disciple eightfold worship five-kalyāṇak pūjā food offerings gods Granoff Gujarat hagiographies Hindu human ibid identity important Indra Jain ascetics Jain ritual culture Jain temples Jain tradition Jainism Jains worship Jaipur Jincandrasūri Jindattsūri Jodhpur kalyāṇaks Kamath karma Khartar Gacch king Kṛṣṇa Kṣatriya Laidlaw lay Jains liberation lineage goddess Lord Mahāvīr materials means mendicant miracles monk named non-Jain nuns object of worship Osiyā Osval Osvāls Pārśvanāth's performed pilgrimage prasad pujārī Rajasthan Rajput Rājpūts Ratnaprabhsūri religious rite of worship ritual acts role Saciyā Mātā Śaiva Sanskrit seen shiper shrine Śiva snātra pūjā social soteriological soul South Asian spiritual Śrī Śrīmāl story Svetambar Śvetāmbar Jains theme tion Tirthankars told tradition's transactions Utpaldev Vaiṣṇava vegetarian worldly worshiper's