Brill's Encyclopedia of Jainism Online

Get access Subject: Asian Studies

Edited by: John E. Cort, Denison University, Paul Dundas, University of Edinburgh, Knut A. Jacobsen, University of Bergen, Kristi L. Wiley, University of California, Berkeley

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Brill’s Encyclopedia of Jainism Online makes available up-to-date research on main aspects of the Jain traditions in original essays written by some of the world’s foremost scholars on Jainism. The encyclopedia is thematic and seeks to present a balanced and impartial view of Jainism with a focus on both historical and contemporary traditions and institutions. The articles address topics such as the human condition, pantheons, historical perspectives, regional cultures, renunciation, lay society, ritual, devotion, visual and material culture, time and space, literature, and philosophy and logic.

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Narrative Literature

(11,898 words)

Author(s): Granoff, Phyllis
Perhaps nothing so vividly demonstrates the importance of stories in Jain religious literature as their prominent role in some of the earliest texts that have come down to us, the Śvetāmbara canonical texts.1 In these, basic teachings for laypeople and monastics are often given in the form of a sermon that Jina Mahāvīra delivers. For each occasion that the Jina preaches, the text provides a rich narrative context, describing the place where the Jina stopped in his wanderings, the Jina’s appearance and spiritual accomplishments…
Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Jainism Online
Date: 2020-04-07