Multiple histories: Culture and society in the study of Rajasthan 8170337208, 9788170337201

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�ultiple Histories Culture and Society in the Study of Rajasthan

Editors

Lawtence A. Babb Varsba Joshi Michael W. Meister

�

RAWAT PUBLICATIONS Jaipur and New Delhi

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ISBN 81-7033-720-8 0 Contributors, 2002

No pert of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any fonn or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage an d retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers. Published by Prem Rawat forRawat Publications Satyam Apts., Sector 3, Jain Temple Road, JawabarNagar, Jaipur - 4 (India) Phone: 0141 651748 / 657006 Fax: 0141 651748 e-mail : [email protected] Website: rawatboolcs.com Delhi Office G-4, 4832/24, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi I1O 002 Phone: 011-3263290 Typeset by Rawat Computers, Jaipur Printed at Chaman Enterprises, New Delhi

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Contents

Contributors

7 9

Editors' Note Tribute to Dr. Rajendra Joshi

11

Uoyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rmlolph

1

Violence and the Construction of Trading-Caste Identity 15 LawreTJJ:e A. Babb

2 A Tale ofTwo Cities: On the Origins of Digambar Sectarianism in North India

39

3

The Tender Trap: Lord Shiva's Wedding in Vernacular Mythology

84

4 On Headless Heroes: Pabuji from the Inside Out Lindsey Harlan

117

John E . Cort

Ann Grodvns Gold

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Contents

The Ramanandis ofGalta (Jaipur, Rajasthan) Monika Horstmann

141

6 Deifying the Dead: The Salis of Rajasthan

198

7

209

Varsha Joshi

The Prannathis of Rajasthan: Bhalcti and lrfan

Dominique-Si/a Khan

8 Light on the Lotus: Temple Decoration or :&scntial Form?

232

Michael W. Meister

9 The Disdainful Maharana: Amar Singh's Ethnography 254 of the Mewar-Kishengarh Marriage Uo'jd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph

10 Albert Hall: A Museum for Industrial Arts

284

Chandramani Singh

11 The Sacred Friendship: Indian Princes and Colonialism 293 RanbirSinh

12 The Elusive Historical Mirabai: A Note

313

Frances Taft

336

Index

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Contributors

Lawrence A. Babb is Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies at Amherst College (USA). John Cort is Associate Professor of Religion at Denison University (USA). Ann Grodzlns Gold is Professor of Religion and Anthropology

at Syracuse University (USA).

IJndRy Harlan is Professor of Religion at Connecticut College (USA). Monika llorsbnann (Monika Boehm-Tettelbach) is Professor of Modem South Asian Studies (Lanbguages and Literatures) at the South Asia Institute, University· of Heidelberg (Germany). Vasha Joshi is Associate Fellow at Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur (India). Dominlque-SUa Khan is an independent scholar specialising in the study of Hindu-Muslim interactions in north Indian history and culture.

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Contributors

Michael W. Meister is Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor of History of Art and South Asian studies at the University of Pennsylvania (USA).

Chandramani Singh, An art historian, is associated with Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur. Her speciality is medievel · India.

Ranblr Slnh, an independent scholar, writes on history and

theater and is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Brimin.

Lloyd I. Rudolph is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago (USA).

Susanne Hoeber Rudolph is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago (USA).

Frances Tall, an independent scholar, writes on the history of Rajasthan in the Mughal and British periods.

i,

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Editors' Note

To be able to work together on a volume memorializing the life and career of Professor Rajendra Joshi has been a great honor for the three of us. Because of the eagerness and goodwill of each and every contributor, and also because of our own sense of privilege in being involved in the process, the task has been a pleasant one and obstacles have been few. We would especially like to express our deep appreciation to Kailash and Pranit Rawat for the generous support they have given to this volume and for their personal involvement in every step in its creation and publication. We believe that the papers presented in this volume are, as a collection, representative of the most important themes in Rajendra Joshi's intellectual life. In consonance with his deeply historical inclinations, almost all of these papers deal in some way with Rajasthan's past. Rajendra Joshi's interests, however, were extremely broad and open, a fact that explains the extraordinary variety of interests and approaches of other scholars bound to him by ties of friendship and colleagueship. This intellectual catholicity is manifest in the great range of methodologies and constructions of the past to be found in the papers presented here. Taken together, they illustrate the fact that

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Editors' Note

Rajasthan's pasts are indeed multiple, and that this multiplicity is a key to understanding the region's rich cultural and social diversity. Given the variety of approaches taken by the papers presented here, we have endeavored to be editorially non­ invasive to the fullest extent possible. We have taken as a premise the notion that different scholarly styles and methods find their most natural expression in different modes of written expression. Thus, although the papers adhere to the same basic editorial format, we have been tolerant of some differences in the way in which they deal with the problem of diacritical marks. In some papers diacritics are not used, in some papers they are used in the first occurrence of the word in question, and in two papers - those in which non-English words are most pervasively embedded in the materials presented - they are used throughout.

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Tribute to Dr. Rajendra Joshi Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph

The Rajasthan studies community suffered a great loss upon the demise of Dr. Rajendra Joshi on April 23rd, 2000, after a prolonged struggle with cancer. Rajasthan studies acquired importance and an institutionalised presence in India because Dr. Joshi, in collaboration with Professor Satish Chandra, had the imagination and persistence to anchor scholarship on this historically important but neglected region in the Institute ,of Rajasthan Studies. Dr. Joshi made at least four major contributions to Rajasthan studies: (1) He organised three international seminars on Rajasthan, the first of which was held in December 1987, bringing together scholars from India, East Asia, Europe and the US for three days of conference papers and exchanges, events which solidified the Rajasthan studies transnational episteme. (2) With Satish Chandra, he organised the Institute of Rajasthan Studies (IRS), which over the past decade has become a friendly base for scholars from all across the world coming to study different aspects of the region. The IRS provided advice, recommendations of promising archival or oral resources, and

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Uoyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph

assurance that there was an audience for work on Rajasthan. (3) He established an important and wide-ranging collaborative relationship with overseas sister organisations or presences, notably in France and the US, working with Karine Schomer, Joan Erdman, Francis Taft, Denis Vidal and yet others to raise the money and find the sites that made the collaborations possible. (4) He edited three important panel volumes on Rajasthan: Folk, Faith and Feudalism, edited with N. K. Singhi (Jaipur: Rawat, 1995); Religion, Ritual and Royalty, edited with N. K. Singhi (Jaipur: Rawat, 1999); and Desert, Drought and Development, edited with Rakesh Hooja (Jaipur: Rawat, 1999). When most of the major thikanas of Rajasthan were allowing their records and archives to decay, Dr. Joshi had the foresight to start a preservation effort. The Vigat project occupied many years, and laid the basis for future research on Rajasthan. The project arranged for photocopying and indexing the estate records of many large Rajasthan thikanas - account books, correspondence, temple records, genealogies, roz namchas. The twenty or so 'Vigats' which he issued provide indexes and brief abstracts of this invaluable collection. Dr. Joshi's enormous energy and good intellectual judgement were crucial for his archival contribution. Having spent some time trying to talk reluctant Thakurs and Thakuranis into turning their papers over to an archive rather than a kabaadi, having seen the fragile condition· in which records were stored; and having encountered the relative indifference to the historical past - as against the romantic or ideological construction of the past among many Rajasthanis, we were awed by his capacity to persuade the owners of valuable collections to permit their microfilming. He was a most skilful academic negotiator and diplomat. The number of forces that had to be cajoled, enticed and coordinated to make even a single Rajasthan studies conference possible, let alone three, were legion. No doubt, his role in the Rajasthan University Teacher's Association had given him

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Tribute to Dr. Rajendra Joshi

practice. His skill revealed to us, as political scientists, the complexity of the decision process, and dramatised the myriad levels and layers of the Indian administrative scene. We watched him tirelessly ally with sympathetic administrators, funders, patrons and override or avoid unsympathetic ones. He moved with wit and calculation from the periphery to the centre, from the professors and vice chancellors at Udaipur or Jaipur University to the University Grants Commission, the Ford Foundation, the ICSSR, and from the bureaucracy of the Rajasthan educational establishment to the shadow bureaucracy of the princely and noble establishment. Though Dr. Josbi's own field of interest was the social and agrarian history of modem Rajasthan, the scholars assembled at the IRS were from all possible disciplines. They included students of religion and culture, of villages and towns, of desertification, nomads, pastoralists, the environment, art history, political and administrative studies, princely state histories, and more. His curiosity about and interest in these myriad approaches to Rajasthan were the engine behind the seminars and publications. Rajasthan scholarship has lost a discriminating, wide­ ranging and intrepid supporter. We celebrate the fact that the Institute of Rajasthan Studies, his institutional legacy, will continue the work that Dr. Joshi began so well.

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1 Violence and the Construction of Trading-Caste Identity Law1ence A. Babb

When, during a rcccot academic conference, I had occasion to mention the fact that the prominent Jain castes of Rajasthan trace their ancestry to Rajpots, an exasperated fellow-conferee objected. saying that the Jains she knows are "Vaishyas and proud of it". Yes, no doubt. And yet reality turns out to be more complex and interesting than that. My own doubts about the analytical horsepower of the Vaishya category began with my study of the Jain community of Jaipur in 1990-91. I, too, had always assumed that Jains, and merchants or traders in general, are V aishyas. What I discovered was that although this truism is certainly valid in Rajasthan, it conceals more than it reveals. As I began increasingly to appreciate in the course of subsequent work in the region, the real cultural markers of trader status have little to do with the va� system. Rather; and as I shall argue here, violence and their relationship with groups that engage in violence are more important than varna (or even lrade itself) to the social and cultural niche of Rajasthan's lraders. In what follows, I make this point in three stages. First, I discuss the Vaishya category itself and its problematical

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relationship with the social realities of Rajasthan. Second, I explore the idea that the distincti_ve cultural trait of trading castes - the trait, that is, that underlies their identity vis-�-vis other communities in the region - is non-violence, and that this trait is functionally related to traders' social and economic roles in the indigenous states of the region. Finally, I suggest that the social identity of Rajasthan's traders has acquired its distinctiveness in opposition to the culture of the region's ruling aristocracy - the Rajputs. In recent times, however, trader identity has disengaged from this older dyad and has found a new mode of expression in a vegetarianised style of politics. · ' In keeping with the theme of a book dedicated to the memory of Dr. Rajendra Joshi, a scholar who was profoundly interested in history, my approach combines a rough-and-ready structuralist anthropology with a focus on history. I am concerned with history, moreover, in two quite different senses. The first is history as modem historians understand it - that is, the past as represented in accounts based on evidence and testable against evidence. A t this level, my principal interest is the nature of the social niche occupied by. trading castes in the region's former kingdoms. My second concern with history has to do with the way it is constructed in the origin narratives of social groups. I do not attempt to address the highly contentious issue of whether this is 'real' history or not. Rather, I focus on how the origin narratives of trading castes express a culturally embedded theory of trader-caste identity.

Vaishyas When I began my research in Jaipur in 1990, I was rather surprised that I was not hearing the term 'Vaishya' very often. 1 I found this disconcerting because it COl!ld be said that, given my focus on the Jains, my purpose there was to study Vaishyas. After all, the region's Jains belong to trading castes, and traders, as everyone knows, are Vaishyas. The term itself was certainly in use, and, when queried on the subject, my Jain friends readily

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acknowledged their Vaishya status. Still, the word seemed to represent an odd void in ordinary discourse. An exception to this general pattern was the name of one of the two 'Kha1:u;lelval' trading castes. 1be non-Jain Khandelvals referred to themselves as 'Khandelval Vaishyas'. I think, however, that this designation is a relatively recent innovation that was promoted by the caste's national association (founded in 1914) in order to distinguish themselves clearly from the Khandelval Jains.2 One could say that none of this is very surprising. Students of Indian society have long known that the fit between the varna system and on-the-ground social realities in India is imperfect at best. Against this, however, it can at least be said that two of the varna categories - Brahman and Kshatriya - are indeed highly relevant to actual social life. Their salience is ratified whenever a group claims a Brahman or Kshatriya pedigree, which has been a frequent occurrence throughout Indian history. Moreover, the modes of life associated with these categories are behaviourally real. While it is true that not all Brahmans are priests and scholars and not all Kshatriyas are warriors or rulers, the priestly and martial ideals associated with these topmost varnas have found embodiment in someone's way of life from ancient times until the present day. But even though the Vaishyas share with Brahmans and Kshatriyas the cachet of 'twice-born' status, and despite the fact that the Vaishya category is an integral part of the varna scheme, the relationship between the Vaishya varna and social reality seems tenuous. Part of the problem is the ambiguous character of the Vaishya concept itself. In Vedic times, the Vaishyas were defined primarily as. a class to be 'eaten', i.e. taxed, by their betters. They were, as Kane says, cattle-rearers who were entitled to sacrifice and were more numerous than the Brahmans and Kshatriyas to whom they owed ooodience and from whom they had to live apart (1974: 42). Manusmrti, reflecting a later and more urbanised milieu, adds trade to the mix, defining the Vaishya varna in the following terms: "Protecting his livestock,

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giving, having sacrifices performed, studying, trading, lending money, and farming of land are [ordained] for a commoner [Vaishya]" (1: 87-91). The Vaishya varna is thus a jerry-built category - a historical accretion of elements that do not hang together very well. Still, despite the fact that few traders are herders or farmers, the category clearly does fit the situation of traders to some extent. Trade and moneylending are at least part of the mix as given in Manusmrti. Moreover, although the traits listed are extremely heterogeneous, there is a common thread, which is wealth. Cattle-keepers, farmers and merchants all create wealth for the 'eating' of those who can take it. The trading castes of Rajasthan are definitely recognised socially as bearers and transmitters of wealth, and their wealth was indeed frequently 'eaten' by ruling elites in the indigenous states of the region. In this respect they certainly fall within the category, although they do not fill it. But there remains a more fundamental difficulty. As w e shall see later in this paper, one of the most important cultural markers of trader status in Rajasthan is non-violence (ahif(ISci). It is expressed both in religious ideologies and a range of actual behaviours. Maniismrti, however, does not list non-violence as one of the traits of the Vaishya va�.3

Traders Who, then, are these traders that the Vaishya category fails to map adequately? In Rajasthan, there exists a class of castes that are distinctively - as castes - associated with trade and other mercantile activities. In Jaipur and its hinterland, the most important of these castes are (in alphabetical order) Agravals, Kandelval Jains, Kandelval Vaishyas, Mahesvaris, Osvals, Srimals and Vijayvargiyas. There are significant cultural and religious differences between these groups, but there is n o question that they form a socially recognised cluster. As elsewhere in northern India, the generic and generally used term in Rajasthan for these groups is Baniyii. This term comes from

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the Sanskrit va,Jij (or vd,JiJ), meaning 'merchant' or 'trader'.

This usage points t o the fact that there is a deep association between these groups and the life of commerce. But although some traders use this word freely in self-reference, many dislike it because i t bears negative conno�tions of greed and sharp dealing. A n alternative term is 'Mahajan', which is also frequently found in historical writing. In what follows, we shall continue to use the English term 'trader' for these castes. However, it needs to be pointed out that this usage is misleading in some respects. Members of these castes are not the only people who engage in commercial activities in Rajasthan. Furthermore, the terms 'trader' and 'merchant' do not adequately convey the full range of their commercial and mercantile activities, which fall on a spectrum from petty shopkeeping and small-time moneylending to big­ time banking and major industrial enterprise. More important yet is the fact that not all members of these castes engage (or engaged) in trade. Most notably, members of these castes were extremely prominent as managers and officials in the region's indigenous states, a tradition of bureaucratic service that continues to the present day. This is a matter to which we return anon. How do these groups understand their own position in Rajasthani society? Anthropologists have long known that a good way to come to know a group's understanding of itself is to attend to its understanding of its past This will be our strategy

here.

Rajasthan's trading castes possess a rich tradition of origin narratives. These narratives were composed and socially transmitted by professional genealogists and certain Jain ascetics, and in recent times have been published in modem formats, usually under the aegis of the national associations of the castes in question. When we look at these origin narratives as a group, we find a couple of striking features. First, with some exceptions, the narratives. tend to claim some ancestry other than

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Vaisbya ancestry for the castes in question. This is an additional indication of the marginality of the Vaishya category for the on­ the-ground social identity of these groups. Second, the origin narratives of these castes tend to trace their descent to Rajputs. This turns out to be universally true among the Jains, with the Hindus presenting (as will be seen) a more mixed picture. To put it somewhat differently, these narratives place traders in Rajput social space, with patrilineal descent as the link. At one level, this is no doubt a form of social climbing that one might expect in a region in which Rajputs stood at the apex of the pyramid of social honour. After all, achieving or attempting to achieve social mobility by imitating Kshatriya (or other) elites is an ancient pattern in India. But, in this case, the matter is more complex, for it has to be analysed in conjunction with another important fact. Crucially, and as will be seen in greater detail later, the traders have in fact had a very special relationship with the Rajputs, and have indeed occupied the same social space. They have done so, however, in a paradoxical manner, for their social closeness to Rajputs has been coupled with deep cultural · differences. This combination of social closeness and cultural difference is one of the things that trader origin myths try to explain.

Violence Traders and Rajputs are generally seen, and generally see themselves, as cultural opposites. Space does not permit us to rehearse all the relevant data here, but the lifestyles of traders and Rajputs express notoriously opposed values. The Rajputs are a warrior aristocracy. Their social personality stresses activities seen as exemplary of martial values: hunting, eating meat, drinking alcohol, and so on. The traders, both Jain and Hindu, are the opposites of all of this. They are non-martial, teetotalling, vegetarians whose way of life is normatively coloured by their commitment (at varying levels of seriousness to be sure) to non­ violence. This matches a popular (and negative) stereotype of

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traders as greedy, cowardly and physically soft. Trader non­ violence is sanctioned by the religious traditions favoured by traders: Jainism and, among Hindus, non-violent Vai�i,ava traditions. It is expressed in a great range of behavioural traits, the most important of which is dietary. Vegetarianism is the cultural centrepiece of trader lifestyles. Indeed, vegetarianism is arguably more important than trade itself to trader identity. This is so because it has never been the case that all traders engage in trade, but the vegetarianised lifestyle is, at least at the level of cultural ideals, a constant. There are, of course, exceptions or apparent exceptions to this generalisation. For example, many trading-caste families who served at the higher levels in the old kingdoms (a pattern to be addressed in greater detail below) adopted the dress and manners of their Rajput patrons. And even more important, state officials of trader-caste origin sometimes took an active part in the military affairs of the states they served. Many examples of martial traders might be mentioned. Perhaps the most famous is Muhai,ot Naif.lSi, an Osval Jain who, in the 17th century, took part in several military campaigns in the service .of Jodhpur (Qanungo 1960: 80-95). Another good example is the Haldiyli lineage. Belonging to the Khandelval Vaishya caste, the Haldiyas came into great prominence in the affairs of Jaipur State at the end of the 18th century. They were renowned as military commanders, and actively participated in many campaigns (see Mishra 1991). The national association of the Agraval caste has even published a book devoted entirely to celebrating the martial valour of ancient Vaishya kings and warriors and to describing modem Agravals who have had distinguished military careers (Bansal 1992).4 But these examples do not vitiate the proposition that non­ violence was a normative and cultural feature of trader life that stood in marked contrast to Rajput ideals and behaviour. While there is just n o question that members of trading castes could and

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did engage in feats of extraordinary valour, members of the trading castes did not generally view the military profession as a desirable way to make a living. To the extent that traders became military leaders, they appear to have done so as a by-product of state service of a more generic type. The currently canonical origin narrative of the Maheshvari caste provides an excellent illustration of the cultural positioning of the traders v i s -a v- is the military profession. According to this myth (Darak 1923: 2 7 3- 1), a prince of Khandela and his seventy-two Rajput henchmen disrupted a sacrifice being performed by six sages at Lohargal. In retaliation, the sages turned them to stone by means of a curse. In the end, Shiva returned them to life, and when they then bathed in the nearby Surya Kund (the bathing tank at Lohargal), the swords and spears they held melted into pens and scales, the tools of business. There is another issue having to do with violence. As Denis Vidal bas shown in his study of the former Sirohi kingdom, the map of non-violence is more complex than is commonly recognised (see 1997: esp. 90-112). We normally think of violence and non-violence as a natural dyad, a simple polar opposition. It could be plausibly argued, however, that these two possibilities form a triad with a third, which is self-inflicted violence or the threat of it. In Rajasthan, this latter approach was once a characteristic strategy of Brahmans, Bhiifs and Ciirans, for whom the threat of suicide was a means (often extortionate) of getting others to do their bidding. The force of such threats was great, for the consequences of being the cause of such a suicide were dire indeed: the stain of Brahmanicide and/or the vengeance of angry goddesses or ghosts. In regional culture, the willingness of members of these groups to take their own lives was seen as a guarantee of the truths (religious, genealogical, historical) of which they were the guardians and transmitters. However, despite the fact that Mohandas Gandhi, arguably the most famous trading-caste figure in Indian history, utilised a variant of this technique (ibid: 111-12), I suggest that it is not the

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same thing as trader non-violence. To the degree that it involves a refusal to harm others, it does indeed draw upon the notion of ahimsa, but the threat of self-violence puts it in a class by itself. From this standpoint, it is not the same thing as non-violence, but rather a sub-species of violence in which nothing is fuDdameotally changed except its object As Vidal points out, it can be located on a continuum that is anchored at one end by the Rajput traditions of jauhar and suicidal attack by defeated warriors (ibid: 90). These latter traditions are martial at their core, and merely reverse the normally outward directionality of warrior violence. While it is true that Mubanot Nainsi died by his own band, I do not think that threatening suicide has ever been a normative tradition among traders, and it significant that Vidal does not include traders among the castes that engage in the practice. It is also true that Jainism, the religious tradition of many traders, puts a strong emphasis on ascetic self­ mortification, including death by self self-starvation. Such practices, however, are.not seen as suicidal, nor is their purpose to put moral pressure on others. Trader non-violence places the emphasis on non-hann as such, not on the redirection of harm. It certainly cannot be said that the trading castes are alone in their commitment to non-violence. Other groups adhere to similar norms, as do individuals as a matter of personal inclination. Nor is it to say that no traders are violent; norms and actual conduct are never totally congruent in any society. Nonetheless, non-violence occupies a defining position in the social personae of the traders - especially the Jains, but not only the Jains. Regional stereotype links trader non-violence with an entire package of interconnected images of 'Baniya' ways, and sees these ways as fundamentally different from the hard­ drinking, meat-eating, and bellicose styles of life believed to be characteristic of Rajputs. We now tum to the social and political context of this cultural contrast.

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Traden and Chieftains

Because of the association between the trading castes and commercial activities, it is easy to overlook the broader role they once played in the political structures of the Rajasthan. Denis Vidal provides a useful sketch of this role in his Sirohi study (ibid). According to him, Sirohi's traders were mostly Shvetambar Jains who belonged to the Osval (both Bisi and Dasii sections) and Porval castes. Although members of other castes (as well as Bohra Muslims) were involved in commerce in the kingdom, the Jain traders were overwhelmingly the main players in the kingdom's economic life. As traders and bankers, they served as vital sources of credit to the kingdom's ruling elite and rural populations alike. Their role was crucial in· .the collection of revenue and the selling of crops. They also served as officials and estate managers for the Rajputs, and were vital to the administrative structure of the kingdom at every level. Moving back from Sirohi momentarily, we should remind ourselves that the pattern of traders serving as state officials was widespread in Rajasthan. Members of other castes (such as Kliyasthas) sometimes served Rajasthani rulers in this capacity, but the trading castes seem to have predominated. They were particularly, though not uniquely, suited for this role because they could not pose a viable challenge to the ruling aristocracy, a point made by K. R. Qanungo (1960: 50), and one to which we shall return.5 The connection between petty shopkeepers and high state officials is more logical than first appearances might suggest. Rajput rulers and chieftains are (or were) men who control men, and therefore territory. By contrast. traders are men who control money and who know how to handle money. In turn, the rational calculus of money management conduces to a cast of mind well suited to the requirements of bureaucratic service to those who control men. It is the foundation of book­ keeping and is also deeply resonant with the rational supervision of the organisation of kingdoms and armies. And of course traders also served as bankers to the region's kings and

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chieftains. Village moneylending, estate management, and affairs of state thus formed a coonccted series. In Sirohi (as described by Vidal), the traders' special status within the kingdom was reflected in certain traits that decisively distinguished them from others. They were literate, and participated in social and economic networks that led far beyond the borders of Sirohi, which meant that they were the most cosmopolitan of the kingdom's denizens by far. But within the kingdom. itself their position was ambiguous and precarious, 6 They were not allowed to own land, which meant that they could not engage directly in agricultural production. They were also subjected to various sumptuary restrictions. These prohibitions ensured that they could never aspire to the political power or social honour of the Rajputs. At one level, they were powerful figures who possessed immense influence and wealth. But at another level, they were extremely vulnerable, for their power, unlike that of the Rajputs, was devoid of cultural sanction. The Rajputs occupied their elite position both by virtue of their martial prowess and with the sanction of a general theory of political legitimacy in which, in exchange for the obedience of their subjects, they provided military protection and regal largess. As we shall see below, this theory was expressed ritually. Trader power had no such foundations. And, because traders were distrusted and resented by their creditors, and also because they were unable to defend themselves, they were deeply dependent on Rajput protection. Because of the services they rendered, but also because of their helplessness, the traders found themselves tightly bound to the Rajput aristocracy at every level of the state. Varna-oriented analyses of caste often stress the Brahman­ Kshatriya relationship as the crucial dyad in the lndic social order (e.g., Dumont 1980). But these materials suggest that, at least in parts of Rajasthan, the really crucial dyad was that of chieftain and trader. The alliance between king or chieftain and his trader advisor/manager is undoubtedly an ancient one in

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India,' and we should note that this dimension of the trader's role is entirely missed by the Vaishya category as defined by the classical vama system. In Sirohi, each was indispensable to the other, as a result of which they were locked together in close social proximity. Of course, the traders were not the only sharers of the Rajputs' social space. Brahmans did, in their role of priests and interpreters of dharma. So did the Charans as genealogists, chroniclers and praise-singers. of Rajput ruling lineages. But as far as the d a y -to-day functioning of the kingdom's political structures and econom_y is concerned, the truly crucial group was the traders. Sacriflce The sacrifice of buffaloes, a rite now in the closet (as we shall see), was once a key ingredient of Rajput ritual culture. More than any other ceremony, it was a high expression of the martial ethos at the core of Rajput social identity. Rulers and chieftains sponsored the rite in honour of their patrician goddesses (kuldevis), who were usually variant forms of the martial goddess Durgli (on these points see Harlan 1992). The phenomenon of patrician goddesses is by no means confined to the Rajputs; the veneration of such goddesses, in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian modes, is a widespread pattern, and is common among traders as well as many other communities in Rajasthan. The buffalo sacrifice, however, was something special. It was a state ritual as well as a lineage ceremony. The goddesses to whom the buffalo was offered presided over the welfare of ruling lineages or lineage segments, and the origin narratives of these groups frequently linked them to the military victories that established their local suzerainty. The blood spilt by the rite symbolised the blood of the sacrificing patrilineage, offered in a sanguinary exchange for the goddess's continuing protection. The rite affJJllled the valour and military prowess of the sponsoring patrilineage, and connected these qualities to the right to exercise dominion over a state or chiefdom.

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With this in mind, it is striking indeed that the sacrifice is also central to the social identity of trading castes, though in a somewhat more metaphorical sense. Understanding how this is so will require us to return to trader-caste origin narratives. Let us note again that one of the ways in which social groups theorise about their identity is by D1eans of origin narratives. When we examine the origin narratives of Rajasthan'i; trading castes in this perspective, we make some interesting discoveries. Because non-violence is the cultural flag under which these groups undertake the voyage of social life, we would expect non­ violence to be played up in their origin narratives, and so it is. As noted already, the stress on non-violence tends to be coupled with the claim of a Rajput pedigree. Such a claim clearly projects the idea that, if trader nature is the antithesis of Rajput nature, it i.s also in some sense a transmutation of Rajput nature. But what I want to highlight here is the agency of this transformation. For j' rg; }\.£,, it turns out that the sacrifice - the very same ritual that is so \ crucial an expression of Rajput social personality and political � authority ,- is portrayed as the medium of the traders' transformation into their present social identity. To clarify what this means, let us tum to some specific examples.• The case is clearest among the Jains. There are three principal Jain castes in the Jaipur region: the Khandelval Jains (belonging to the Digambar sect) and the Osvals and Shrimals (both belonging to the Shvetambar sect).9 According to the currently favoured origin myth of the Khandelval Jains (Kaslival 1989), the caste originated when a Rajput king of Khandela and his henchmen were converted to Jainism. A great plague had attacked the city, and the king's Brahman advisors had attempted to deal with it by burning some Jain monks alive in a sacrificial fire. Far from solving the problem, the human sacrifice caused the plague to increase in virulence until the king himself was stricken. The situation was saved when, at the instigation of a Digambar monk, the king and his lords converted to Jainism.

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The Shrimals and Osvals were also once Rajputs. According to one Shriinal narrative, the Shrimals became Jains when Gautam Sviimi thwarted a great animal sacrifice that was about to be undertaken by the king of Shrimal City (contemporary Bhinmal) (Riimlalji 1910: 103-30). As the narrative makes plain, the main issue was the violence about to be inflicted on the innocent animals. The Osval caste was created with Rajputs were converted ta Jainism as a result of a medical miracle performed by a Jain iiciiryii (Jiiansundarji VS1986: Ch. 3, 4 6 9- 1). Their conversion was not complete, however, until their patrician goddess, Ciimur;u.fa, was weaned from animal sacrifice, which they, as Jains, could no longer offer her. The dominant theme of these narratives is the transmutation of the fundamental nature of social groups. The change occurs as a consequence of engagement with a ritual, blood sacrifice, and the change itself is precipitated by rejection of sacrificial violence. That contemporary or near contemporary Jain narratives should express aversion to animal sacrifice is hardly surprising, for Jain hostility to the practice is millennia old. 10 The Jain origin myths have picked of this theme and utilised it as a way it accounting for the creation of Jain castes. An interesting feature of these Jain myths - at least in the versions I have seen - is that not only do they claim Rajput pedigrees for the castes in question, but nothing is said of their becoming Vaishyas. This is no doubt partly a consequence of the weak presence of the Vaishya idea in regional culture. But it also may reflect the idea that, in the specific case of the Jains, the erstwhile Rajputs remain as they were before the transformation, except in the one crucial particular of violence. They become, if you will, non­ violent Kshatriyas. This is not as preposterous as it might seem at first. Jainism is itself a non-violent martial tradition, for Jains are followers of jinas, 'conquerors', and Jain ritual culture is suffused with imagery of the worshiper as a kingly or queenly venerator of ascetics (Babb 1996: 64-101). But, of course, the • Digiti zed by

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conquest in question is not of worldly armies but of the desires and aversions that stand in the way of final liberation. The origin narratives of the principal Hindu trading castes in the Jaipur area (the Agravals, Khandelval Vaishyas, Maheshvaris and Vijayvargiyas) are more heterogeneous than the Jain talcs, but they also express the underlying theme of the transmutation of violence to non-violence through the medium of the sacrifice. 'The clearest-cut case is the origin narrative of the Maheshvaris, already discussed above. Readers will recall that in this case, as opposed to the Jain narratives, the violence that leads to the transformation is committed against the sacrifices not by means of the sacrifice. That is, the six sages• sacrifice, which is not a blood sacrifice, is portrayed as entirely worthy; the guilty parties arc not the sages but the violent prince and his henchmen. According to the currently most widely known version of the tale (Darak 1923), they deliberately disrupt the sacrifice because the prince had become a Jain; another version (Bihlini 1983) holds that, while hunting, they pollute the sacrifice by washing their bloody weapons in a pool being used by the sages. According to one Khandelval Vaishya myth (�4elvlil 1984), the caste's apical ancestor was the famous sage, Jamadagni. He killed a deer on the way to a sacrifice, and unwisely brought the dead animal to the place of sacrifice. As a result of a curse by the enraged officiant, Durvlisii, he lost his Brahman status and became either (according to the telling) a 'Vaishya' or a 'Baniya', and his descendants became the Khandelval Vaishyas}' According to the origin narrative currently being promoted by their national association, the entire Agraval caste is descended from King Agrasen of Agroha (Sarmii 1989). 12 I-le was a Vaishya (according to this version of the myth), but he was also a sponsor of animal sacrifices. The crucial moment in the tale comes when, during the eighteenth of a series of eighteen animal sacrifices, he feels remorse for the death of the animals and discontinues the rite. Each of the eighteen sacrifices is associated with one of the Agraval

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patricians, and a common adage therefore holds that the Agraval caste consists of seventeen and one-half gotras (patricians). These narratives echo the theme of ttansmutation found in the Jain narratives, but with significant differences. The most obvious is that the claim of Rajput ancestry is less insistent, being unambiguous only in the Maheshvari case. It should be noted, however, that the Brahman ancestor in the Khandelval Vaishya myth gets in trouble precisely because of violent, Kshatriya-lilce behaviour, namely, hunting; and while the myth does not say so, the implication is that there will be no more behaviour in the mode of hunting. (Other Khandelval Vaishya origin narratives trace the caste's ancestry to Rajputs.) And, although Agrasen is said to be a Vaishya, he engages in the Kshatriya-like behaviour of the sponsorship of animal sacrifice until his momentous change of heart. Other Agraval myths and popular opinion in Rajasthan favour a Rajput pedigree. The most significant exception to the sacrifice­ ttansformation scenario of which I am aware is represented by the diminutive Vijayvargiya caste. 13 Unfortunately, I have seen only a limited sample of the origin narratives of this caste. However, I can say that at least two of their myths clearly trace their descent to trader ancestors, in one case to a 'Vaishya' (Vijayvargiya 1991) and in the other to a 'Mahajan' (Singh 1997: 439-40).'4 These myths make no reference to·a sacrifice. Why the Vijayvargiyas are apparently more comfortable with a Vaishya or trader pedigree than our other castes (the Agraval case being at least ambiguous) I cannot say for sure. The case, however, is certainly of interest because it suggests the possibility that if the putative origin of a caste does not involve an actual change in the inner nature of a group, there _is no need for the involvement of a sacrifice. That is, these narratives might not be true ·origin' narratives, but rather simply tracings of the caste's genealogy to a fixed point in the mythohistorical past. It should come as no surprise that the sacrifice could be portrayed as a type of rite of passage by means of which social

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groups change their nature. The Vedic sacrifice has long been linked with the creation of the social order (along with the cosmos and everything in it), and has long served as a metaphor for social inclusion.'5 As we know, Shiva's exile from the society of the gods took the form of exclusion from his share of the rite. In consistency with this, trader-caste origin narratives explain trader-caste character as a consequence of a change in the relationship between the caste in question and the sacrifice. The Jains make a clear break with the rite, and leave the sacrificial· order altogether. This is consistent with the Jains' ancient hostility to the sacrifice and the Brahmanical social order for which it stands. The Jains carry with them something of their old Kshatriya status, but Kshatriya violence has been transformed by introversion. In the case of the non-Jain traders, there is no break with the sacrificial order, but rather a repositioning. This is shown by some significant postscripts. In at least one version of the Maheshvari myth (the one given in Darak 1923), the six sages whose sacrifice was disturbed take on the role of priests to the newly created traders. To our Khandelval Vaishya myth is added the detail that one of Jamadagni's two disciples becomes the apical ancestor of the Khandelval Brahmans, who would serve the Khandelval Vaishyas as priests. 16 One published version of the Agraval myth claims that each of the seventeen and one-half Agraval patricians derives its name from the name of the Vedic sage presiding over one of Agrasen's sacrifices (Modi n.d.: 8).17 In these non-Jain cases, that is, the group does not leave the Brahmanical/ sacrificial order (as d o the Jains), but returns to it on a new footing.

Schlsmogenesis But in the midst of these details we must not overlook the most obvious point. Whatever else is going on in these narratives, they place opposition to violence in or around the sacrifice at the very core of the social .identities of the castes in question. This fact

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bas an obvious and very important implication, which is that these castes are not only non-violent, but they are on mythohistorical record as being unable to take part in, to say nothing of sponsoring, such rites as buffalo sacrifices. Indeed, an inability to do so is part of their group essences as instilled by the manner of their creation. Herc, I believe, we confront evidence of a condition of the bargain that traders made with the social order to which they once belonged. Powerful they may have been, and they may indeed have exercised political authority from within the structures of state bureaucracies. But, the ultimate sources of Rajput authority were forever beyond their reach. In this sense, the traders' mythical relationship with the sacrifice is emblematic of what was once their paradoxical closeness to and distance from the Rajput ruling elite. Traders enjoyed the benefits of that closeness in social space, but to do so they had to be culturally distant, thus guaranteeing that they could never be true competitors. This is how· traders lived with' their heads in the mouths of lions. In order to characterise this relationship, I would like to revive a useful idea that has languished for too long on one of anthropology's more obscure attic shelves. I refer to Gregory Batcson's concept of 'schismogencsis', a notion he put forward in a monograph on the latmul (a people of New Guinea) long before he became a 1960s icon. Schismogenesis refers to a cultural process of differentiation of the behaviour patterns of two individuals or groups of individuals (1958 (1936]: 175-97). It results from the formation of self-amplifying, action-reaction feedback loops between the two parties, driving them into ever more extreme forms of behaviour. When the behaviour patterns in question are different but in a mutually reinforcing way (such as dominance and submission), schismogenesis may be referred to as 'complementary' (as opposed to 'symmetrical'). I would like to suggest that Rajputs and traders display group personalities that are complementary opposites in this sense, and that may well be products of a dynamic of mutual

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repulsion. The ultimate proof of such an assertion can lie only i n historical ethnography of a sort that, as far as I am aware, does yet exist. However, it can at least be said that the non-violence of traders is part of a complex of culturally stereotyped 'Baniya' characteristics that contrast starkly with, are habitually juxtaposed to, and in popular discourse engage in mutual antagonism with, the martial traits that regional culture defines as characteristically 'Rajput'. These stereotypes, perhaps most. strongly held of each other by the groups in question, are persistent themes in local discourse on caste. The persistence cannot surprise us, for there is a sense - as I have tried to show in which traders do indeed construct their social identity as the 'others' of Rajputs.18 And yet this old relationship is now shattered and has reconstituted itself as a form of cultural politics. Gone are the days of trader subservience to Rajput �wer, for Rajputs no longer bestride the region's social and political life. The growing strength of the traders, in turn, has manifested in the form of 'vegetarian politics', a style of politics emphasising the cultural values of trading communities. It is highly significant that this trend has resulted in an assault on one of the principal symbols ofRajput political authority, namely animal sacrifice. Vegetarian politics, it seems, capitalises on a theme central to the Rajput ethos, but - as always - in mirrored reversal. The legitimacy of Rajput political authority rested on the idea that Rajput rulers would protect their subjects in exchange for loyal service. Vegetarian politics appropriates the notion of protection and extends it to the animal kingdom, and especially to the cow; it then uses this principle to attack the very sacrifice that once put the seal onRajput authority. Animal sacrifice in public places of worship has been legally banned in Rajasthan since 1975. The story of how the law in question - the Rajasthan Ani1nals and Birds Sacrifice (Prohibition) Act, 1975 - is a complex one, ,vith many a twist

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and turn. Suffice it to say that, although a member of the Jlt caste introduced the bill to the State Legislative Assembly in 1973, it was the traders, and especially the Jains, who were i_ts principal instigators. According to one of the main actors in these events (whom I interviewed in January 2001), there were two precipitating causes. One was the 1974 celebration of the 2,500"' anniversary of Mahavira's liberation. The run-up to this event generated quite a bit of anti-animal sacrifi� sentiment. Another factor, further in the background but very much in the awareness of many of the Bill's supporters, was the anti-cow­ slaughter agitations that took place in Delhi in November, 196(>, and that culminated in eight deaths. Thus, the 1975 bill can be seen as a connecting point between national politics and the cultural wars of Rajasthan. As one might imagine, the law has not been vigorously enforced at the grass roots level, a fact that has generated bitter complaints from some of the law's proponents·. When I asked a senior police official in the state about the law, he informed me that although he has served in many different locations throughout the state, he has never actually heard of an instance of police enforcement of the 1975 Act. But even if grass roots enforcement is problematical, the law has at least made it easier to challenge animal sacrifices i n highly visible places. As a result, the law appears to have had a major impact on the public ceremonial culture of the region's old Rajput aristocracy. For example, even after Jaipur State had ceased to exist, the royal frunily continued to conduct buffalo sacrifices at the temple of , Sita Mata at Amber Fort. But, as a result of the law, the public sacrifice was discontinued, although I am told that it is still conducted on a smaller scale in private. Thus ended the ritual symbolis1n of an already vanished political order. Vegetarian politics can be seen as an autonomisation of trader social identity. Pulled out of an older systemic relationship with other identities, and thus no longer the 'other' of anything,

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trader identity has embarked on a new career. It has become a triumphant political ideology and, in the view of some, a legitimate ingredient of India's national identity.

Acknowledgements The research on which this paper is based took place from August 1996 to June 1997, mainly in Jaipur, and was supported by a senior research fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies. I am especially indebted to Rajendra Joshi for his guidance and encouragement during the research period and beyond. I am also grateful to the Department of Anthropology, University of Rajasthan, for granting me an affiliation during my stay in Jaipur. An earlier version of this paper was delivered to the March 2001 meetings of the Association for Asian Studies in Chicago at a panel entitled "Vai§yas: Castes in the Middle". I thank my fellow panelists for helpful criticisms. Special thanks are due to John Cort and Frances Taft for extremely helpful readings of early drafts. All mistakes of fact and interpretation, however, are solely my own.

Notes 1. Although the regional context of this paper is Rajasthan. the specific castes with which it debts are the important trading castes of Jaipur and environs. 1be research in question was reported in Babb (1996) and other publications. 2. 1be Kandelval Vaishyas and the Khandelval Jains are separate endogamous castes. The Kandelval Vaishyas are Hindus. 3. Mary McGee (personal communication) has pointed out to me that the Dharmasatra of Vn§i$!ha (3.24) forbids Vaishyas to truce up arms unless in self-defence or to prevent vama mixture. This strikes me as less about the issue of violence than about the lower status of Vaishyas vis-a -vis the warrior class. 4. 1be Agra vats' national association promotes the view that the Agravals have a Vaishya pedigree. See Babb (1998).

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5. For a valuable discussion of traders in official roles, see Qanungo (1960: 50-59). For an equally valuable discussion of state officials as a class, see Devra (1980). 6. For a portrait of the troubled existence of non-Rajput state officials in Bikaner (in this case Kayasthas, not traders), see Taft and Devra (1999). 7. Vidal adds the Brahman to this dyad (1997: 12). 8. The tales described here are taken from late 19th and 20th century publications of m4terials drawn from earlier sources, both written and oral. While these modem publications necessarily reflect special agendas (a topic separate from this paper's, and very complex) I am confident that the gist of the narratives remains relatively stable. 9. Although there are Digambar Jains among the Agravals, this is basically a Hindu caste in Rajasthan. 10. It s)lould be pointed out that there is a persistent tendency in these narratives to equate the Hindu rite of animal sacrifice (balidiin) with the Vedic rite (yajna). This conflation is only partly valid. 11. They become 'V,.a\shyas' in the version of this narrative published ip their national caste association's magazine. In 1996, however, I had the good fortune to hear the same myth orally from the same caste genealogist who was the source of the published version. The story was basically the same, but this time around he identified the ancestral sage as KhOl).;iila �i and. characterized his descendants as 'Khandelval Baniyas', suggesting, again, that Vaishya is not quite the usage that comes naturally in Rajasthan. 12. This is a veaion of the myth first published by the great Bharatendu Hari�candra (reproduced in Sanna 1989; see also Gupt 1996). 13. Also known as 'Bijabargi' or 'Bijivat'. 14. Another myth (Vijayvargiya 1969: 10) possibly suggests Rajput origin (but at best ambiguously). 15. It should be noted, however, that the Jains do not accept the view, most famously given in hymn 10:90 of the [!.g Veda, that cosmos and the social order arose from a primordial sacrifice. They attribute the creation of three of the four vamas to �$abh, the first Tirthankar of our region and era; his son created the Brahmans. 16. According to the published story, Jamadagni had two disciples; the other became apical ancestor to the caste of genealogists who serve the Khandelval Vaishyas.

•.

pigitizete a commentary on it, known as the ''Teacher of Children" (Biilbodh). Thus conversation about this knowledge spread; this became the doctrine of those who follow the Adhyatma style (Jaili). It became famous in Agra, and people became knowledgeable about it. Five skillful men began to talk about knowledge day and night. Par:ic;lit Riipcand, Caturbhuj, Bhagotidas, the virtuous Kaut'lrp31, and Dharmdlis met together. They would discuss the supreme truth (paramiirth) and nothing else. Sometimes they discussed the Samayasiira, and other times other texts. Sometimes they would continue to discuss wisdom even after they had stood up [to leave).... This work continued for many months - how many I can't say. It became known in Agra that a man named Baniirsidas had a little knowledge on the subject. ... Then Banirsi decided to publicize these teachings of the Jina.He received permission from the five men to compose it in poetry (1970: pp. 416-21).

Baniirsldas is explicit that his Samaysiir Niifak is indebted to the ca. tenth century Sanskrit commentary of Amrtacandra, and especially to the Hindi commentary by Pii1.uje Rajmall. The message of the text as conveyed by Baniirsidlis is the need to attain knowledge of the true fonn of the soul: "O faithful brothers, listen to my lesson. If you are able even for a moment to stop the arising of false understanding (mithyiit), then a bit of knowledge (gyiin,jniin) awakens, and you know the true form of

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the soul. By this means one drinks the supreme nectar, stops wandering from birth to death, destroys illusion and attains true immortality" (p. 43). In particular, says Banarsidas, one must cultivate what the Digambar mystical tradition terms bhedavijiidna or bhedajflana (Hindi bhedvigyiin, bhedgyiin), "knowledge of the difference" between the immortal, pure soul and the ignorant bondage of karmic matter. Banarsidas was here clearly following the Digambar mystical tradition. This was understood by his Svetimbar critics Yuovijaya and Meghavijaya.25 The latter's ca._1701 26 attack on Adhyiitma was entitled Yuktiprabodha, for which another title was Va�rasiya Digambara Mata Kha,µJana (Refutation of the Baniirasi Digambara Sect). In addition to following the teachings of Kundakunda, the Adhyatma group did not ornament Jina images in the temples; Meghavijaya identifies this as a distinctly 2 Digambar practice. 7 They also agreed with the Digambars on the disputed issues of whether women can attain liberation and whether the enlightened but not yet liberated Jina has bodily 21 functions. At the same time, however, the Adhyiitma followers held that a true monk possesses nothing, and so held that the Digambar monks should not carry a peacock-feather broom and gourd water-pot that are their public insignia. Given their suspicions about the conduct of Digambar monks (even though it is unlikely they evet met one), it is not surprising that they rejected the authority of the bhatfiirah.29 Nor did �anarsidlis reject all Svetambar texts; in 1634, just two years before he wrote his Samaysar Natale, he collaborated with Kau1.1rpal to write a Hindi translation of the 12111 century Svetiimbar Somaprabha' s Siiktimuktavali (Pearl Garland of Verses). This liminal, semi-sectarian status of the Adhyatma following the Digambar teachings of Kundakunda, but not necessarily following the Digambar position on all matters nor completely rejecting the Svetiimbar tradition - has marked the afterlife of Baniirsidiis' literary works. Nathiiriim Premi (1957:63) has written that at least three 1nanuscripts of the

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Samayslir Nii{ak were hand-copied by Jain monks (by Siidarat'lg

�i in 1661, Gajsar Muni in 1783 and �i Jindatt in 1813), and that the first published version of the text was published by a Svetiimbar layman.30 The manuscript library in Patan, Gujarat, the collection of which is almost exclusively Svetiimbar, contains seventeen copies of the Samaysiir Nii{ak, dating between 1673 and 1838 (JambuvijayajI 1991). The Adhyiitma circle in Agra continued for many decades after the death of Baniirsidiis. His friend and co-author Kaulirpiil, as we saw above, continued to lead the Agra group in the years after Banarsidiis. He prevailed upon Hemraj Piil)(je, a disciple of Piii,(jit Rupcand, to compose a Hindi paraphrase of another important text by Kundakunda, the Pravacanaslira (Essence of the Teachings), in 1653 (Upadhye 1935:cxi). Hemriij (ca. 1598?) was a prolific author with a thorough knowledge of both Sanskrit and Prakrit. He was a close student of Kundakunda, and wrote commentaries on a number of Digambar philosophical texts, in addition to a critique of Svetambar Jainism, his Sitapa{ Cauriisi Bol (Eighty-Four Pronouncements on the Svetiimbars) of 1652 (Kiisliviil 1986:204-24; Jaini forthcoming), which he also composed at the request of Kaulirpiil. A generation later the poet Dyiinatriiy (1676-1726) was a participant in Adhyiitma discussions in both Agra and Delhi (Siistri 1952; Cort forthcoming). In his Dhann Vilas (Sport of Religion) he refers to a saili in Agra led by Miinsiqih Jauhri (Premi 1957:36). Daulatriim Kiisliviil, who later was an important figure in the Teriipanth in Jaipur, lived for a while in Agra in the early 18111 century (Kiisliviil 1973). In the colophon to his 1720 Pur.iylisrav Katha Kos (Collection of Stories on Merit), Daulatriim describes the poet Bhiidhardiis (ca. 1701-1766) as an important Adhyiitrna intellectual who regularly gave sermons in the Siihganj temple , (Siistri 1997:113-20). Baniirsidiis, Dyiinatriiy and Bhiidhardlis are all a1nong the most important Digambar Hindi poets, so we see that the Agra circle was involved as much with poetry as it was with spiritual subjects. Kastiircand Kiisliviil (1986:3-5) writes

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that for 11" and 18th century Digambar poets such as Bullilchicand of Mathura and Bulakidas of Delhi, Agra was the centre of the literary universe.31 There were Adhyiitma circles in other north Indian cities as well. Dyiinatriy refers to one under Sukhiinand in Delhi, who in another anonymous text is also described as leading a saili in Multan (Premi 1957:36). Around the same time we find another reference to an Adhyiitma group in Multan in the Adhyatmamatiyaro Savaiyo (Quatrains on the Spiritualist Sect) of the Khartar monk Dharmavardhana Mahopiidhyiiya.32 He wrote this in response to questions asked of him by the Multan group, indicating that they came into Adhyiitma from the Khartar Gacch. He criticised the followers of Adhyiitma for abandoning the authoritative Svetiimbar scriptures, ·the Svetiimbar monks, and the traditional Svetambar ritual culture. Further, he says that the very questions asked of him start by rejecting all texts other than those Digambar ones favoured by Adhyiitma such as the Paramatmaprakiisa (Light of the Supreme Soul) of Yogindu and the Dravyasangraha (Collection on the Substances) of Nemicandra. 33 A third reference to an Adhyiitma group in Multan is found in the ·vardhmiin Vacanikii (Declarations of Vardhmiin) of Vardhmiin Navlakhii, composed in that city in 1689, in which he describes Baniirsidiis as his spiritual master (Premi 1957:108-11). A fourth reference to Multan is found in the 1709 Dhytin Dipikii Caupai (Quatrains on the Light of Meditation) of Muni Devcandra,34 who says that all the Jains of that city are followers of Adhyiitma (Premi 1957:111). Niih� (1946) has given a brief discussion of the Adhyiitma circle of Multan, which he estimates flourished from the mid- l 7'h through the mid-18th centuries. The members of this circle appear to all have come from the Svetiimbar Khartar Gacch community, and most of the authors of Adhyiitma texts appear 10· have been Khartar Gacch monks. Niih!ii says that these Svetiimbar monks also served the Adhyatma community by translating into the vernacular Digambar mystical and yoga texts such as the

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JohnE. Cort

Jiidndr,µzva (Ocean of Knowledge) of Subhacandra and the ParamiitmaprahUa of Yogiodu, as well as Svetimbar yoga texts such as the 126 century YogaJastra (Manual of Religious

Practice) of Hemacandra. Pawit Khaogsen of Namol, in his 1656 Trilok Darpa,J (Mirror on the Three Worlds), describes a group in Lahore of at least ten intellectuals, including Ja&11vanrim from Agra (Premi 1957:37). There was also a circle in Banaras that predated the one in Agra (Premi 1957:37-38). But the most important centre of activity was the new city of Jaipur, and the nearby older Jain communities of Sanganer, Amer and Catsu. Let us now tum to developments there.

Jaipur The development of what eventually became the Teriipanth in Jaipur is better described in two phases. The first started before the founding of the city of Jaipur in 1727, and took place in the nearby Jain communities of Sanganer and Kaman. The second took place several decades after the founding of Jaipur, when the division between the two sects crystallised around the polemical writings and activities of the Teriipanth intellectual Pai:i' lfil1I; 1 3ITfit tt'!l'III'< � mift "I � 111 fl'!l'III'< qi1ffl o1lffl

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