Jain Brahmins are a community in Karnataka and parts of the Kerala region who have traditionally offered priestly services, including help and guidance in different types of life-rituals for Jain householders. To do this, the priests follow specific texts and processes for performing and celebrating the śodaś saṃskāras or the sixteen milestone life events. The way Jain Brahmins prescribe these sixteen saṃskāras has some differences vis-a-vis the Vedic Brahminic traditions. Additionally, there are couple of saṃskāras which are followed by Jains and not by Vedic Brahmins and vice-versa. A comparison between the Jain and Vedic Brahminic interpretations reveals differences and commonalities which help understand the unique role of the Jain Brahmin priests.

Today, the Jain Brahmin priestly tradition is in decline, with only some 150 families identifying themselves as Jain Brahmins. These families have maintained their lineage by marrying within the community and passing down the tradition through successive generations. Due to declining financial patronage, the last three to four generations have taken to other professions and the community is finding it hard to continue their tradition. Since youth are not forthcoming to continue this tradition, some volunteer organizations have taken the task to preserve the tradition by grooming the youth in part-time practice and the model has seen moderate success so far.

The paper combines an examination of the present condition of the Jain Brahmin communities in South India with an overview of the procedures relating to the saṃskāras to provide an insight into their traditional occupation within the broader Jain community.

The figure of the monk in the Jain tradition is imbued with a sense of royal authority. Monks are often called “mahārāj” or great king, for example. The male head of the monastic community, called an ācārya, has the ultimate authority in the Jain community. As respected leaders, they can be felicitated with songs, rituals, and parades as they enter a town. This relationship could create tension with the ascetic ideal of Jainism, where monks should, in theory, be detached from the world. Monks have always had to negotiate this tension, but during the colonial era, monastic heads called śrīpūjyas, in order to wield vast social, political, and even martial power, put much greater emphasis on the royal character of their position. This talk will examine Hindi and Gujarati language jīvancaritas or hagiographies of śrīpūjyas from the Añcal, Loṅkā, Paichand, and Khartar monastic orders of the Śvetāmbara community in North India. By comparing these displays of royal authority with renunciants who came before and after them, one can see how these displays reflect both changing political circumstances and attitudes about appropriate monastic praxis.