CoJS Newsletter • March 2012 • Issue 7

Stūpa as Tīrtha: Jaina Monastic Funerary Monuments

Peter Flügel
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T he Jainas are widely recognised as the Indian pil-

grims par excellence. A plethora of recent studies
has therefore investigated Jaina pilgrimage circuits and
pilgrimage manuals. So far, research has concentrated
almost exclusively either on the annual vihāra of the itin-
erant Jaina mendicants or on the occasional individual
or communal pilgrimages (yātrā) to Jaina sacred places. of the Jina, the samavasaraṇa. Later, the semantic range
In most textbooks Jaina sacred places (tīrtha-kṣetra) are of the Jaina term tīrtha was extended to permanent Jaina
depicted as sites marked by temples or shrines housing pilgrimage places and shrines, possibly following the ex-
anthropomorphic images and/or footprint images of Jinas ample of the pilgrimage places mentioned in the Hindu
or renowned Jaina saints. Only recently, attention was epics. The association of certain places with the legen-
drawn to the flourishing cult of relic stūpas in medieval dary five auspicious events, or pañca-kalyāṇakas, in the
and contemporary Jainism. One of the principal findings exemplary lives of the twenty-four Jinas, vividly depict-
of recent research at SOAS on Jaina rituals of death is that ed in the Jinacaritra section of the Kalpasūtra and later in
these stūpas serve as alternative destinations for pilgrim- the Jain-Purāṇas, furnished the foundation for the present
age across almost the entire Jaina sectarian spectrum. network of pilgrimage sites. The five auspicious events,
This report will point out some of the characteristics of including death, are: descent into the womb (garbha-
these pilgrimages. avataraṇa), birth (janma), renunciation (niṣkramaṇa), en-
From the point of view of Jaina soteriology, attach- lightenment (kevala-jñāna) and salvation (nirvāṇa). Two
ment to material objects is a form of delusion (mithyātva), types of Jaina pilgrimage places were constructed from
and the concept of sacred place, an absurdity. Hence, early medieval times onwards: nirvāṇa-bhūmis, or places
the Vedic Sanskrit term tīrtha (Pkt. tittha) crossing or of death of the twenty-four Jinas, and kalyāṇa-bhūmis,
ford, originally a designation for bathing places and places associated with the remainder of the five auspi-
places of pilgrimage where crossing the ocean of exist- cious moments. The locations of some of the named sites,
ence (saṃsāra) is deemed possible, was reinterpreted by such as the birthplace of Mahāvīra, are disputed between
classical Jainism and given the dual sense of Jaina ‘doc- Digambaras and Śvetāmbaras, which developed slightly
trine’ and ‘fourfold ascetic community’ (cāturvarṇya different overlapping networks of pilgrimage centres
śramaṇasaṅgha), that is, monks, nuns, and male and and sacred geographies. There is agreement, however,
female laity. (Viyāhapannatti 20.8.72-74) Doctrine and that the places of death of the Jinas are the prime Jaina
community, the two principal components of the religion, tīrthas. The places of conception, where the souls of the
are created by the omniscient tīrtha(ṅ)kara, who is the Jinas descended from heaven into their mothers’ wombs,
main object of veneration. Accordingly, the paradigmatic are rarely marked or targeted by pilgrims.
tīrtha in early Jaina literature was the temporary assem- Following Loṅkā, the aniconic Jaina traditions reject
bly of the fourfold community at the time of the sermon as a matter of principle the sacredness of such, rather ar-
 Jaina Studies. Newsletter of the SOAS Centre of Jaina Studies, 6 bitrarily identified, sites and similar locations connected
(2011) 26f. Research was supported by Fellowship AH/I002405/1 of with the lives of important ācāryas or gods. In their view,
the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). only the scriptural understanding of tīrtha as doctrine
 ‘Jainas have decried all forms of respect shown to inanimate objects and community is valid. However, even in the aniconic
such as fields, stones, mounds or mountains’. (P.S. Jaini, ‘The Pure
and the Auspicious in the Jaina Tradition’. Purity and Auspiciousness traditions, at least most of them, it is now customary after
in Indian Society. Ed. J. B. Carman & F. A. Marglin. Leiden: E. J. cremation of a renowned monk or nun to collect and bury
Brill, 1985, p. 89.) the remaining ashes and charred bones at the cremation
site. Usually these samādhi places are only marked by a
small cabūtarā, or funeral platform. But increasingly, not
with an elaborate samādhi, constructions emerge with
chatrīs or śikharas.Whatever its architectural form, any
marked site which harbours bone relics of Jaina mendi-
cants can be characterised as a Jaina stūpa.
Numerous Jaina monastic funerary monuments dot
the modern landscape of South Asia. Many of them date
 Non-Jaina or jainised pilgrimage places are mentioned already in the
Jaina scriptures. But they are not associated with lives of Jaina saints.
The eternal (anādi), made by the gods, and man-made (sādi) sacred
places (tīrtha) of Jambūdvīpa, pointed out in Ṭhāṇa 3.105-108, are
abodes of guardian deities vanquished by Jaina cakravartins.
Peter Flügel

 P. Flügel, ‘The Unknown Loṅkā: Tradition and the Cultural Uncon-

scious’. In: Caillat, Colette and Balbir, Nalini, (eds.), Jaina Studies.
Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 2008 (Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit
Sallekhanā of a muni under a tree. 10th-century stone relief in the Conference Vol. 9), p. 240, n. 234.
Candragupta Basti in Śravaṇabeḷagoḷa.

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CoJS Newsletter • March 2012 • Issue 7

to the 11th century CE, or in some cases possibly to the site, and this is standard practice today. The resulting un-
5th century CE. Significantly, there is no archaeological certainty as to whether a particular funerary monument is
evidence at all on Jaina funeral culture earlier then the a mere commemorative or a relic shrine is not uninten-
famous remnants of the Jaina stūpa at Mathurā, which tional. Monastic funerary monuments cannot and should
may or may not have been a funerary monument. It was not be venerated with confidence for the presumed power
dated by G. Bühler, on the basis of an optimistic infer- of their relics. At the same time the perception is nurtured
ence, “several centuries before” an excavated inscription that the shrines built over the sites of cremation of Jaina
of 156/7 CE. No indication for a relic cult of the Jinas monks and nuns, in a quasi-vedic manner, are miracle
exists. The mythical nirvāṇa-bhūmis of the 24 Jinas have shrines (camatkāra-smāraka) worth visiting.
only relatively recently been identified and marked with The recent AHRC funded project Jaina Rituals of
commemorative shrines. The oldest extant Jaina funer- Death produced for the first time a comprehensive survey
ary shrines are probably the niṣidhis, seats or resting or of Jaina stūpas in India, that is, niṣidhis and samādhis
cremation places, of a Jaina ascetic, especially one who constructed at the cremation sites of Jaina mendicants.
performs the death-fast. These are in Southern India. Many of the more recent sites were investigated in detail
Whether the niṣidhis marking the site of the death or cre- to confirm the presence or absence of relics, but this was
mation of a renowned monk or nun are relic shrines is not possible in all cases. Significant is the overall pattern,
disputed in the literature. Though in recent years concrete namely, the existence and current rapid expansion of a
evidence for contemporary Jaina relic practices at the third type of multipurpose pilgrimage site with a focus
location of specific niṣidhis or samādhis has been pub- on the sacred remains of deceased Jaina monks or nuns,
lished, archaeological research at sacred sites is not pos- supplementary or alternative to the existing tīrthas of the
sible, and usually there are no inscriptions or signposts image-worshipping Jaina traditions. These remains are
indicating the presence of relics at a particular location. either body relics or contact relics, in particular at the site
Written sources sometimes point to the collection and of cremation itself. Most of the kept pilgrimage circuits
burial of relics of well-known ascetics at one or another are regional and not well organised. Most pilgrims come
 G. Bühler. ‘New Excavations in Mathurā’. Vienna Oriental Journal,  Cf. G. Schopen. ‘Stūpa and Tīrtha: Tibetan Mortuary Practices and
5 (1891) 59-63 (p. 61.f.). an Unrecognized Form of Burial Ad Sanctos at Buddhist Sites in India’.
 P. Flügel. ‘Jaina Relic Stūpas’. Jaina Studies. Newsletter of the SOAS The Buddhist Forum 3 (1994) 273-293; P. Flügel. ‘Burial Ad Sanctos at
Centre of Jaina Studies, 3 (2008) pp. 18-23; P. Flügel. ‘The Jaina Cult Jaina Sites in India’. International Journal of Jaina Studies (Online) 7,
of Relic Stūpas’. Numen 57, 3-4 (2010) 389-504. 4 (2011) 1-37.

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 CoJS Newsletter • March 2012 • Issue 7

individually or accompanied by their immediate family are mostly concentrated in Gujarat. As in the case of the
to venerate the stūpa for its empowering and wish-ful- Digambara funerary monuments, despite their growing
filling properties. Only on the day of death of the par- size and opulence, they are still relatively insignificant as
ticular monk or nun collective vigils are held at the more pilgrimage sites and remain in the shadow of the temples
popular sites. These pilgrimage circuits both reflect and and temple cities.
bolster the predominance of specific monastic orders in The role of the samādhis is comparatively greater
a particular socio-geographical field of activity (kārya- in the present day Terāpanth and in many, but not all,
kṣetra). Only the presumed sites of death of the Jinas Loṅkāgaccha and Sthānakavāsī sects, that is, monastic
have a global and by definition trans-sectarian reach. orders and lay following that reject image-worship and
The first of two forthcoming books ensuing from this temple construction. Next to the fourfold community
project focuses on the history, doctrines and organisa- gathering around the itinerant ascetics, the samādhis are
tion of the Sthānakavāsī traditions in Northwest India, here becoming important secondary tīrthas in their own
and maps, as far as possible, the sectarian, biographical right. Some of these networked pilgrimage sites, such as
and geographical distribution of their funerary monu- the samādhis of the extinct Uttarārddha Loṅkāgaccha in
ments in the Panjab, Hariyana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. the Panjab, the Terāpanth samādhis and those of some of
The second volume gives a comprehensive overview of the Sthānakavāsī traditions in Rajasthan, and the highly
Jaina rituals of death and the relic cult in contemporary individualised religious practices associated with them,
Jainism. The first book comprises a complete docu- have been mapped and investigated in toto. Though the
mentation of the geographic distribution and sectarian project covered the area of South Asia as a whole, the
affiliation of the monastic funerary monuments of the same level of detail as in Northwest India concerning in
Loṅkāgaccha and Sthānakavāsī traditions in Northern particular the aniconic traditions could not be achieved
India. As such it represents a continuation of earlier pub- everywhere. But the survey of the principal sites clearly
lications on the history and organisation of the monastic established that relic stūpas have been constructed across
orders of the aniconic Loṅkāgaccha and Sthānakavāsī the entire spectrum of the principal Jaina traditions and
traditions, published under the designation “protestant function today as secondary tīrthas all over India. Instead
and post-protestant Jaina reform-movements”. The work of the term tīrtha, however, most aniconic traditions pre-
focusses on six Sthānakavāsī traditions (sampradāya) fer the designation aitihāsik sthal, or historical site.
and their regional links to the Uttarārddha Loṅkāgaccha,
the Kharataragaccha, and the Tapāgaccha which was re- Acknowledgements
vived by the ex-Sthānakavāsī Pañjāb Sampradāya monk
Ācārya Buddhivijaya (Buṭerāy) (1806-1882) and the The creation of the unique record of the mortuary
ex-Sthānakavāsī Gaṅgarām Jīvarāja Sampradāya monk cenotaphs in Northwest India was rendered possible
Ācārya Vijayānandasūri (Ātmārām) (1836-1896). It also through the help of Sādhvī Arcanā and Ācārya Śivmuni
comprises an almost complete documentation of the and, initially, of Upapravartaka Dineśmuni, all of the
biodata of the monks and nuns and the locations of the Sthānakavāsī Śramaṇasaṅgha. Sādhvī Arcanā on request
samādhis constructed by these Sthānakavāsī traditions. supplied an almost complete handwritten list of the stūpas
The overall geographical distribution of the investi- in Northwest India, to which only a few others were add-
gated shrines in Northwest India, most of them confirmed ed later. Ācārya Śivmuni gave his blessings for research
relic stūpas, is represented in Figure 1, without details of and furnished further details of lay contacts and informa-
sectarian affiliation.10 Figure 2 depicts all Jaina monastic tion on god/goddess shrines in the region, which are now
funeral monuments in India that were investigated dur- integrated in the overlapping pilgrimage circuits of the
ing the course of the almost ten year long project, the last lay followers of the five surviving now interconnected re-
year of which was funded by the AHRC. gional monastic traditions of the Śramaṇasaṅgha. Many
Suffice it to say in this brief report that distinct region- of the shrines in the area were visited and studied by the
al pilgrimage circuits, reflecting the main areas of sec- author in 2010-2011 with the untiring support of Sohanlāl
tarian vihāras, are nowadays associated with Jaina mo- Sañcetī of Jodhpur and Narendra Sañcetī and Padam Jain
nastic funerary monuments. Three regions are dominated of Amritsar. Puruṣottam Jain and Ravīndra Jain of Māler
by Digambara shrines: Bihar and Jharkhand (closely as- Koṭlā in particular deserve praise for their enthusiastic
sociated with the nirvāṇa-bhūmis of most Jinas), coastal voluntary work for the project. Through their network
and southern Karnataka, and southern Maharashtra and of contacts in the region, and journeys personally under-
northern Karnataka. The last two regions have the high- taken, they collected photographs of the shrines and in-
est concentration of the Digambara population outside the scriptions as well as supplementary information. Without
large metropolises. The Mūrtipūjaka samādhi-mandiras their help and their freely shared inside knowledge and
records of local history the project could not have been
 P. Flügel, Die Sthānakavāsī Śvetāmbara Jaina-Orden in Nordindien.
Protestantische und Post-Protestantische Jaina-Reformbewegungen.
accomplished. They effectively co-authored the resulting
Zur Geschichte und Organisation der Sthānakavāsī VI. Wiesbaden: data set on Jaina relic shrines in Northwest India based
Harrassowitz (In Press) (Studies in Oriental Religions 64), ISBN 978- on the initial list of Sādhvī Arcanā. In the same way, all
3-447-06714-0. relic shrines in coastal Karnataka were pointed out by
 P. Flügel. Jaina Rituals of Death. London: Routledge (forthcoming).
10 All maps and tables are by Jan Vietmeier: jan@vietmeier.de, Ad-
Bhaṭṭāraka Cārukīrti (Mūḍabidrī). The project benefitted
ministrative Boundaries: www.gadm.org. For more detailed maps, see also from the support of the late Ācārya Mahāprajña of
Jaina Rituals of Death. the Terāpanth.

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