International Conference on Buddhism and Jainism in Early Historic Asia
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Item A Study on Feminist Ideas of Jainism(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2017) Rupasinghe, S.The concept of feminism springs as a wave of philosophy cum a socio political movement in the 19th century and its breeding ground was Europe. Its ultimate aim can be phrased as an aggressive attempt to concretize for women equal opportunities in the matrix of social and economic aspects. The aggression rises against male dominance and imposes later an overall and inevitable influence on the later socio, cultural, political and educational spheres. As feminism thus proceeds as a socio movement it soon reaches as an educational movement into the premises of universities and higher learning institutes. The enlightened women opened their eyes to a bold truth i.e. that society hitherto has been seen through the eyes of men only. This trend went on to beget a new tendency i.e. to begin to view philosophy and religion from the feminist angle.The optimistic picture of the woman in India went into hiding with passing time and its ultimate visage was the Sathi ceremony by which widows were killed. As its opposites, this proposed research wishes to study on feminist thoughts in early Jain philosophy. This study is carried out with the aid of texts as its methodology. Jain female clergy had preceded Buddhist female clergy. It is said that in the Swethambara Jain sect, 4000 males and 36000 females were ordained. The females ordained in Jain sect were twice the number of males. Among the 24 Jain Theerthakaravara, there was a woman named Malli and she was the 19th of them. She was the chief cause of protest around the stand that women cannot achieve salvation.Item Female Divinities – Mortal, Heroic & Mythical in Jaina Religion: Reference to Ancient Jaina Scriptures, Sculptures and Paintings(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2017) Yegnaswamy, J.Jainism is one of the ancient religions in India, traces its history through twenty four male monks called Jinas or Thirthankaras. In the early phase of Jainism, the women were strictly restricted in the religious sphere. However Mallinatha - a sole female mortal was an exception who transformed herself to the nineteenth Digambar Jaina Thirthankara. Only during the period of the final Thirthankara by name Vardhamana Mahavira (Circa 599-527 B.C.) the Jain community and its doctrines were expounded. Accordingly, women were admitted in the religious sphere as ‘laywomen’ (shravika) and ‘nuns’ (sadhavi) and some attained enlightenment (kevalagyana). Further to this, several mortal heroines (sati and mahasati) for their chastity are placed on the pedestal of divinity, and are worshipped in Jain religion. In terms of godly mother figures the mortal royal mother of Thirthankara Vardhamana Mahavira is measured as a significant divine mother. Besides this, Jains worship a number of female mythical deities, categorized as devi and yakshi/yakshini who as guardian deities (shasanadevi) of each Thirthankara assigned to protect them from the worldly attractions. The images of such tutelary deities (shasanadevis) are seen placed alongside the tangible images of Thirthankaras with whom they are venerated by Jains. Also, a number of female tutelary deities (shasanadevis and yakshinis) though are associated with the Thirthankaras, yet they hold an independent status of divine motherly figure (matrika) in Jaina religious pantheon. This paper brings an account on female divinities of mortal, heroic and mythical category in Jaina faith in terms of their origin, mythology, and iconography drawn from the scriptures, paintings and sculptures respectively. The visual examples presented in this paper are derived from ancient Jain religious temples and historical sites extant in varied regions in India.