Jainism

Examples of Jainism in the following topics:

• Jainism

  • Jainism is a pre-Buddhist religion with roots in the Sramana tradition.
  • The ultimate aim of Jainism is to achieve liberation of the soul.
  • The predominance of karma is one of the key features of Jainism.
  • Contemporary Jainism is divided into two major schools, or sects, called Digambara and Svetambara.
  • Followers of Jainism celebrate Paryushana at the Jain Center of America in New York City.

• Jain Architecture

  • Jainism has played an important influence on the development of architectural styles in India.
  • Jainism is a transtheistic religion prescribing non-violence toward all living beings.
  • Its founder Mahavira (c. 540–468 BCE) was born into a royal family but renounced worldly life to become an ascetic and establish the central tenets of Jainism.
  • Jainism found favor with the merchant classes and also with several powerful rulers.
  • Both Chandragupta and Samprati were responsible for spreading Jainism in southern and eastern India.

• Jain Sculpture

  • Ayagapata is a type of votive slab or tablet associated with worship in Jainism.
  • This sculpture represents two Tirthankaras, or founders of Jainism.

• The Rise of Hinduism

  • The Upanishads are a collection of Vedic texts that contain the earliest emergence of some of the central religious concepts of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
  • Sramana, meaning "seeker," refers to several Indian religious movements, including Buddhism and Jainism, that existed alongside the Vedic religion—the historical predecessor of modern Hinduism.
  • After the Gupta period, central power disintegrated and religion became regionalized to an extent, with variants arising within Hinduism and competing with each other, as well as sects of Buddhism and Jainism.

• The Sramana Movement

  • Sramana was an ancient Indian religious movement that began as an offshoot of the Vedic religion and gave rise to other similar but varying movements, including Buddhism and Jainism.
  • Sramaṇa traditions later gave rise to Yoga, Jainism, Buddhism, and some schools of Hinduism.

• Religion

  • Symbols representing some world religions, from left to right: row 1: Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism row 2: Islam, Buddhism, Shinto row 3: Sikhism, Bahá'í Faith, Jainism

• Animism

  • Examples of animism can be found in forms of Shinto, Serer, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Pantheism, Paganism, and Neopaganism.

• Sacred Objects

  • The ten largest organized religions of the world, comprised of Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Judaism, Sikhism, Baha'i, Jainism and Shinto, each have longstanding traditions that relate to sacred objects.

• Ashoka's Conversion

  • Chandragupta Maurya's embrace of Jainism increased social and religious renewal and reform across his society, while Ashoka's embrace of Buddhism has been said to have been the foundation of the reign of social and political peace and non-violence across all of India.
  • In his edicts, Ashoka expresses support for all the major religions of his time: Buddhism, Brahmanism, Jainism, and Ajivikaism, and his edicts addressed to the population at large (there are some addressed specifically to Buddhists; this is not the case for the other religions) generally focus on moral themes members of all the religions would accept.

• Buddhism

  • Sramaṇa traditions (or its religious and moral practices) later gave rise to varying schools of Hinduism, as well as Yoga, Jainism, and Buddhism.
  • In addition to the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha’s lifetime coincided with the flourishing of influential Sramana schools of thought, including Jainism.