Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and creating along the way a nearly subhuman race of outcastes,
people not even allowed physical contact with caste Hindus.
Mahavir, Jainism's enigmatic founder, along with the twenty-
four
Tirthamkaras
, or teachers, who preceded him during the current
cosmic cycle, is represented in the religion's temples by identical
Buddha-like seated figures of white marble, with unnervingly beady
inlaid eyes. Coupled with curious plaques covered with
innumerable pairs of tiny moulded feet, the result, I couldn't help
thinking, confused the outsider every bit as much as the profusion
of gods and goddesses in any Hindu temple. Since all the little feet
and all the idols are indistinguishable from one another, it doesn't
really seem to matter which of them represents Mahavir himself,
and which his predecessors. Little is known about these latter,
although one is said to have been Krishna's cousin. The images are
bathed and subject to devotions, much as Hindu idols are, but they
are not worshipped. Jainism is essentially atheistic, teaching that
man ascends to the supreme state of consciousness and omniscience
through the help of
Tirthamkaras
and by ascetic practices alone. No
creator-god exists to intercede. The Jains, and particularly the Jain
saint Rayachand, deeply influenced Mahatma Gandhi's earliest
formulation of his socioeconomic philosophy, with its foundations
in truth and nonviolence.
Every religion needs its distinguishing features, of course, and
in Jainism these include a reverence for all life that transcends the
wildest dreams of the most pedantic and pious vegetarian. Many of
its two million adherents in India today wear surgical masks to
prevent their accidentally inhaling and thus murdering bugs; some
carry brooms to sweep the path ahead clear of insect life as they go
on their rather slow way. Jain temples, consequently, are often havens
for rats, snakes, and various kinds of bird life. Presumably man-
eating tigers and rogue elephants would not be turned away, either.
Many Jains, somewhat incongruously, are now bankers and
extremely wealthy merchants, just as the Jews and some other
religious minorities also seem to have become over the centuries,
perhaps also by virtue of their tightly knit communities. Thanks to
the affluent Jain Trust, the extraordinary temples in and around
Jaisalmer are immaculately preserved. In its preserving zeal,
