The Transformations and Challenges of a Jain Religious Aspirant from Layperson to Ascetic: An Anthropological Study of Shvetambar Terapanthi Female Mumukshus

Authors

Komal Ashok KumarFollow

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Major/Program

Religious Studies

First Advisor's Name

Steven M. Vose

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Christine E. Gudorf

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Third Advisor's Name

Albert Wuaku

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Keywords

Ethnographic study, Terapanthi Female Mumukshus

Date of Defense

3-22-2016

Abstract

This thesis explores the challenges that Shvetambar Terapanthi Jain female mumukshus (religious aspirants) face during their training at the Parmarthik Shikshan Sanstha, an institute unique to this sect dedicated to training young females to become nuns. The educational requirements, secluded social environment, disciplined rules, and monastic hierarchies train aspirants to understand the demands of nunhood. Based on interviews and observations, aspirants express their struggle to balance the personal desire to progress spiritually toward liberation (moksha) that motivated them to renounce with the requirement to raise their juniors as part of the ascetic community, a new kind of familial structure. The disparity in the training of female and male renouncers in the Terapanth reveals problems that remain in the gendered way female renouncers are treated in their training. Renunciation is shown not to be gender neutral, leading to a more nuanced understanding of Jain asceticism in contemporary India.

Identifier

FIDC000244

Recommended Citation

Ashok Kumar, Komal, "The Transformations and Challenges of a Jain Religious Aspirant from Layperson to Ascetic: An Anthropological Study of Shvetambar Terapanthi Female Mumukshus" (2016). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2481.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2481