Prof. Dr. Lawrence A. Babb
Opposition between Rajput and Jain identity arises from the centrality to Jain life of the norm of ahimsa, nonviolence. Ahimsa, as we know, is a basic tenet of Jainism as a religious system. It is more than just a matter of religious doctrine, however, for ahimsa is also a cultural value that is embedded in many aspects of Jain life. Indeed, ahimsa is a crucial ingredient in the sense Jains have of who they are and how they differ from other communities. Jains are, or are at least supposed to be, strictly vegetarian, which differentiates them from nonvegetarian groups. But Jains also give their own distinctive modulations to vegetarianism, and this further distinguishes them from other vegetarian communities. As noted in Chapter One, observant Jains do not consume root vegetables (such as potatoes) because roots are believed to contain multitudes of souls; this is not true of vegetarian Hindu groups. Jains also contribute lavishly to Jain-sponsored animal welfare organizations and sometimes ransom goats to save them from the butcher's block. Bloodsports are naturally inconceivable for Jains. Jains avoid occupations that involve the taking of life, and the Jains themselves claim that this is why so many Jains are businessmen. Many other examples of the influence of ahimsa on Jain life could be given. Ahimsa is a value that expresses Jain piety and shapes a distinctively Jain lifestyle. It also establishes boundaries that separate Jains from other groups in Indian society, including other vegetarian groups.
The Rajputs are the opposite of all this. Jains are the most vegetarian of vegetarians; Rajputs eat meat. Jains rescue goats from the butcher; Rajputs are renowned hunters. Indeed, hunting is as emblematic of Rajput values as vegetarianism is for the Jains. Jains abstain (or are at least supposed to abstain) from alcohol, while alcohol is an important element in Rajput hospitality. Rajputs, above all, take pride in a heritage of warrior-kingship, while the Jains are deeply nonmilitary (although there have been, and are today, Jain military men). In this sense, Rajputs and Jains represent true cultural opposites.
But at the same time there is a point at which Rajput and Jain identity merge, at least from the Jain perspective. Most of the Osval Jains of Rajasthan, and other Jain groups too, claim to be descended from Rajputs who converted to Jainism and gave up Rajput customs centuries ago. This claim is frequently and vehemently made. It is true that the clan histories (of which more below) do include some accounts of Jain clans of non-Rajput origin. And it is true, too, that it can be plausibly argued (within the assumptions of the system) that Jains, or any subgroup of Jains, sprang from "all" varna's and castes, because this in fact would be more consistent with the image of the Tirthankar as a "universal" teacher (see Nahta and Nahta 1978: 11). This, however, is not the prevailing view among ordinary men and women with whom I discussed these matters. I have been told time and again by members of Jaipur's Svetambar Jain community that the Jains are descended from Rajputs or Ksatriyas (the two words are synonymous in this context). Some individuals are reasonably well acquainted with their own clan histories; others have only vague ideas about such matters. Virtually everyone, however, takes as beyond dispute the general proposition that Jains were once Rajputs.
The claim is made by Digambars as well as Svetambars. Among Digambars, for example, the Khandelvals (the largest Digambar caste in Jaipur) are believed to be mostly descended from a Cauhan (Rajput) king of Khandela and his feudatory lords; they are said to have given up violent ways and embraced Jainism under the influence of Jinsenacarya, a famous Jain ascetic (Kaslival 1989: 64-69).[1] An alternative version (K. C. Jain 1963: 103) holds that at that time eighty-two Rajputs and two goldsmiths ruled eighty-four villages in the kingdom, and from these came the eighty-four clans of the Khandelvals. The Agravals, also prominent among Digambars, are likewise said to be of Rajput origin (Gunarthi 1987: 55-56; Singh 1990: 151-53).
On the Svetambar side, Rajput origin is claimed by both Srimals and Osvals. According to one version, the Srimals are descended from the Ksatriyas of the ancient city of Srimal, who were converted to Jainism by an acarya named Svayamprabhsuri (Srimal n.d.: 3).[2] The Osval case, our main concern here, requires extended consideration. Two separate bodies of Osval origin mythology are relevant in the present context. One, which I shall call the "Osiya legend," traces Osval origins to the town of Osiya, north of Jodhpur. The other, a group of stories that I shall call the "Khartar Gacch legends," traces the origin of Osval clans to the proselytizing activities of past acarya's of the Khartar Gacch.
Much of this material was apparently composed by Jain ascetics who, as Granoff has shown, functioned as the Jain equivalents of the caste bards and genealogists of the Rajputs (Granoff 1989b: esp. 197-98). The composers' purpose was to cement ties between their own gacch's and particular exogamous patricians (gotra s); the gacch of the monk responsible for a clan's original entry into the Jain fold would have a perpetual right to serve the ritual, spiritual, and record-keeping needs of that clan (ibid.: 200). As K. C. Jain (1963: 99-100) has shown, inscriptional evidence demonstrates that the consecration of images was a particularly important point of ritual connection between a given gacch and particular clans. The people of a given clan would utilize acarya's of a particular gacch to perform image consecration ceremonies at their temples. Jain mentions several gaccb's, now all extinct but two, as linked in this fashion with Osval clans: the Upkes, Khartar, Maldhari, Pallival, S[?]anderak, Brhad, Añcal, and Korantak gacch's. He lists the Ganadhara Copada, Daga, Dosi, and Luniya clans as patrons of the Khartar Gacch. It seems possible that in the past there was a vast and complex network of ritual relations between clans and mendicant lineages among the Svetambar Jains of Rajasthan. If this is true, then the clan origin mythology available today and the cult of the Dadagurus may represent incomplete vestiges of what was once an arrangement of homologous and interlinked structures, an all-encompassing ritual-social order bringing the domains of spiritual and worldly "descent" together in a single system.
There are many Hindus as well as Jains among the Khandelvals and also the Agravals. There are Hindu Osvals as well.
I was unfortunately unable to obtain sufficient materials to investigate Srimal clan origin mythology. During the period I was in Jaipur, Bhutoriya's Osval history had recently appeared, and in this volume he makes the assertion that the Srimals are a branch of the Osvals (1988: 186-93). This obviously contradicts the view of many Srimals that their caste emerged earlier, and infuriated a local Srimal notable and author whose opinions were of great interest to me. But I was unable to obtain sufficient data to pursue these issues. An enlightening and concise discussion of the Srimals can be found in Lath 1981: 105-9.
