SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Part IV of the study of the Sthānakavāsī Śvetāmbara Jaina traditions focuses on the sociology of monastic schools and sects. It comprises (1) a discussion of Randall Collins' sociological interpretation of Jaina philosophical schools, and earlier scholarship on the sociology of Jaina schools and sects; (2) a new interpretation of the monastic categories maṇḍalī and saṃbhoga, literally 'circle' and 'commensal group', and of the processes of inclusion and exclusion; (3) a source-critical reconstruction and analysis of the doctrinal and ritual differences between the first Sthānakavāsī schools of Dharmasiṅha, Lavjī Ṛṣi and Dharmadāsa in the seventeenth century, and an an assessment of their influence on the subsequent development of the aniconic Jaina traditions.