A wives tale

Religion professor Whitney Kelting's new book examines the effort among Jain women to reconcile their devotion to their husbands with their abhorrence of self-sacrifice and harm.

"Sati," a centuries-old funeral ritual among some Hindu ethnic groups in which a widow commits suicide by fire on her husband’s funeral pyre, was once considered by some members of those communities to be the epitome of devoted wifehood, says Whitney Kelting, assistant professor of religion at Northeastern.

On the other hand, Jains, an ancient religious sect in India for whom peace and nonviolence are of paramount importance, and who share the same ethnic background as the satimas, reject the outlawed funeral practice but accept their culture’s strict discourse on a wife’s subservient role in her marriage.

Kelting’s new book, “Heroic Wives: Rituals, Stories and the Virtues of Jain Wifehood,” examines the effort among Jain women to reconcile their devotion to their husbands with their abhorrence of self-sacrifice and harm.

Her first book on the Jains broke new ground. “Singing to the Jinas: Jain Laywomen, Mandal Singing and the Negotiations of Jain Devotion,” marked the first formal study of the religious significance of Jain music. The Rubin Museum in New York recently showcased Kelting’s collection of three-dozen hymns as part of an exhibit on Jain art.

For her latest work, Kelting traveled to Pane, Maharashtra, and examined eight Jain sati narratives that women use to shape their understanding of wifehood and inform their views on piety and virtue.

In one well-known narrative, a man abandons his soon-to-be wife on her wedding day to become a monk. She becomes a nun to reunite with her would-be-husband.

Though Jain women reject sati rituals because of their commitment to nonviolence, says Kilting, they showcase their loyalty to their husbands by acting in lockstep with their wants, needs and desires.

“They focus on self-cultivation,” Kelting says. “They believe they can achieve anything by being more virtuous.

“This notion of joint-renunciation puts them back together again. For the most part, wives strive to balance the use of religious practices to benefit their husbands.”

Kelting, who grew interested in Jainism while doing research for a college course on Eastern religions, was taken aback by the complexity and uncompromising nature of its philosophical doctrine. Jains’ highly nuanced stance on harm, for instance, turns everyday tasks for members of the religious group into philosophical problems.

But instead of resigning themselves to failure, Jains recognize the impossibility of strict adherence to their religious principles and instead challenge themselves to come up with creative solutions around these ethical dilemmas.

Take the simple but necessary task of cooking: Lighting a flame could accrue bad karma because it might kill an insect, so children—who are perceived to be further away than their elders from the day of reckoning, when karma points are tallied—are tasked with making breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“How do you even get up in the morning,” Kelting says, “if you believe that you can harm not only people, but animals and plants and earth bodies and water bodies?

Jains take things to the logical extreme. They’re always in this mode of compromising.”

ARYIKA CHANDANA

ARYIKA CHANDANA
The first nun

By Prof. Yashwant Malaiya

To see a group of Jain nuns pass by is awe-inspiring. Barefoot, clad simply in a pure white garment, white garment, with a gentle demeanor but firm in following a noble but arduous code of conduct, the order of nuns(sadhivs) has been a major source of inspiration for Jain shravakas throughout the centuries. They are following in the footsteps of the first nun, Aryika Chandana.
Over 25 centuries ago, Lord Mahavira, having established the final Tirtha of this declining era, attained Moksha in 599 BC. The Kalpa Sutra mentions that at that time Mahavira’s Sangha consisted of 14,000 monks,36,000 nuns,159,000 shravakas and 318,000 shavikas. Able Aryika Chandana, who was also known as Chandanabala, led the congregation of nuns.

Chandana was born into a royal family. Tragically, as the result of a war, she was taken into slavery and sold. She was purchased by Seth Dhanadatta for use as a domestic servant. When the seth’s wife saw Dhanadatta treat his slave kindly, she became jealous of the beautiful Chandana. While Dhanadatta was away, she had Chandana’s head shaved and her legs chained to the door of her slave quarters where she cried in anguish for days. When hungry, she was given half-cooked lentils (urd) in a flimsy bamboo container used for winnowing grain called a supa. Chance awaited her in this miserable condition.

Lord Mahavira was a Jain monk, and Jain monks may often take a vow to accept food only when it is possible to observe a set of pre-determined special conditions. The practice originates with Mahavira himself. A few months before he attained Keval Jnan, continuously fast until offered food by only that individual who met 10 untold and seemingly impossible conditions. He would accept (1)only urad lentils,(2) offered in a winnowing basket, (3) given by a person standing sideways with one foot on the threshold of a dwelling place and the other foot outside, (4) who was a princess turned in to a slave, (5) who had a shaven head, and (6) whose legs were bound by chains. She had to be (7) a chaste woman, (8) at the time performing the penances of attham (3 days’s fast), and would serve him (9) only after all other mendicants had rejected her food offering, (10) with tears in her eyes.

Many would have cherished the honor of giving food to Mahavira. Five months and 28 days lapsed, and no donor fulfilled his secret conditions. But Chandana, a princes sold as a slave, shackled and humiliated by the jealous wife of a depraved merchant, fulfilled his secret conditions. But Chandana, a princess sold as a slave, shackled and humiliated by the jealous wife of a depraved merchant, fulfilled all the other conditions except weeping. As Mahavira passed by, he turned his face away at the last moment without accepting her humble alms. Already tormented and abused, Chandana began to cry.

And thus the final condition was met. To the amazement of onlookers including her captors, in his bare palms Mahavira accepted the food Chandana offered from her simple winnowing basket, breaking his six-month fast with a small handful of the rough slave fodder that Chandana had been living on for weeks. Chandana was released and she joined Lord Mahavira’s monastic order. She thus became the first nun of the Mahaviran Jain tradition and eventually the leader of thousands of Aryikas.

The significance of Chandana’s leadership may be judged by comparing the order of Jain nuns with the Buddhist nun. Buddha agreed to ordain nuns only after considerable hesitation and persistent pressure from his aunt. Within a few centuries of Buddhist nuns was completely done away with in the Theravada sect. Some scholars believe this lack of female leadership contributed significantly to Buddhism’s eventual extinction in India.

Thousands of jain nuns today walk all over India and now travel the world, presenting the message of Lord Mahavira and following the path of Aryika Chandana.