AHC:Jainism has more followers

samcster94

Banned
Jainism is a religion in India with about 5 million followers. Is there a way to give the religion more of a following at any point after the idea of Jainism existed??? I am looking for numbers on OTL Sikhism levels at the minimum. I am no expert on the religion or anything but have always wondered why this religion was so small.
 
Im very uncertain in my knowledge of Jainsm, but i will try. Jainism is a relgion that is somewhat similar to Hinduism. And in the past there used to more Jains in India, proportionally. Since Jainism is a Dharmic religion, it has some degree of fluidity with other Dharmic relgions like Hinduism. Maybe if a ruler becomes Jain, then the population will follow? Is there really such a big barrier from converting to Jainism from Hinduism?
 
Get a South Indian kingdom to convert and remain ruled by Jain kings for a lengthy period, and it’ll be as major as Lingayatism.
 

mad orc

Banned
The basic issue with Jainism was that it was somewhat pacifist .
In the era when there were only Hindu kings around ,it prospered and it was prestigious to be a Jain for a monarch .
But even as Muslim invasions started with Muhammed of Ghazni in the 11th century, Hinduism which was more suitable for a warrior society began to get the upper hand .
For Jainism to survive you not only need a strong ruler who is a Jain, but it should be modified to become suitable for non pacifist or non peace people .

Somewhat like how Buddhism was modified in China, Tibet and Japan to suit the warrior clan .
 
I'll admit I know very little about Jainism apart from its extreme pacifism, but it occurs to me that should it have gained a significantly larger following, that's less likely to have made the world better as to have made Jainism worse.
 
What prevented the spread of Jainism was mainly their obsession with nonviolence. The Jains viewed even agriculture as a violent form of profession as farming could cause the destruction of thousands of living organisms in the soil. The Jain monks keep their mouths covered with a piece of cloth so that minute living things do not enter the mouth with the intake of air and perish. As they could not adopt agriculture for living the only adoptable profession was trade. It was the merchants and traders who mainly adopted Jainism. Such a religion could not attract a large number of followers in a predominantly agricultural society. Lord Buddha might have considered the Jain obsession with nonviolence when he opined that one should not go to the extremes in all activities of life. He advised moderation in all fields.
Further the Jains did not receive the patronage of the royals and the rich to the extent that the Buddhism received. While Buddhism was supported by the emperors like Ashoka, Kanishka and Harsha, Jainism was supported by very few kings like Kharavela. Nowadays Jainism survives like a cult of Hinduism as the Jain temples are visited by the Hindus also. In the present period the Jain community is a comparatively rich community like the Zoroastrians in India.
 
What prevented the spread of Jainism was mainly their obsession with nonviolence. The Jains viewed even agriculture as a violent form of profession as farming could cause the destruction of thousands of living organisms in the soil. The Jain monks keep their mouths covered with a piece of cloth so that minute living things do not enter the mouth with the intake of air and perish. As they could not adopt agriculture for living the only adoptable profession was trade. It was the merchants and traders who mainly adopted Jainism. Such a religion could not attract a large number of followers in a predominantly agricultural society. Lord Buddha might have considered the Jain obsession with nonviolence when he opined that one should not go to the extremes in all activities of life. He advised moderation in all fields.
Further the Jains did not receive the patronage of the royals and the rich to the extent that the Buddhism received. While Buddhism was supported by the emperors like Ashoka, Kanishka and Harsha, Jainism was supported by very few kings like Kharavela. Nowadays Jainism survives like a cult of Hinduism as the Jain temples are visited by the Hindus also. In the present period the Jain community is a comparatively rich community like the Zoroastrians in India.
Wasn't the original purpose of the white cloth to prevent ritual impurity?
 
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