Jainism: History, Society, Philosophy and Practice

Jainism is a tradition that dates back thousands of years, is unbelievably rich and profound, and which has certain unmistakable signs of identity. Contrary to what some might think, it is not in any sense a poor relation to Buddhism, nor is it a strange, atheistic, and ascetic sect within Hinduism. Jainism is, above all, the religion of non-violence (ahimsa), an ideal that all other religions of India were subsequently to make theirs and which was made universal by Gandhi in the 20th century. Like Buddhism, Jainism is a religion without God that paradoxically opens to the truly sacred in the deepest reaches of all living beings in the cosmos. And it is also the religion of non-absolutism (anekantavada), a particular form of philosophical pluralism, which seems astonishingly modern.

The author traces the dynamics and development of Jainism-deftly steering between the extremes of the overly academic and the superficial. He looks at Jainism's main features: its cosmology, mythology, its origins, and great figures, its main subdivisions and religious groups, its scriptures, practices, and soteriological approaches, as well as its rituals, the social, cultural, and political interactions and so forth.

Jainism is both a didactic introduction and an invitation to study the religious traditions of India: a study of its philosophy, its art, its ways of life, and its ways of being integrated into the world and released from it.