Sthanakvasi

Sthānakavāsī (Sanskrit: स्थानकवासी) is a sect of Jainism founded by a merchant named Lavaji about 1653 CE that believes that God is nirakar "without form", and hence do not pray to any statue.^[1] The sect is essentially a reformation of the one founded on teachings of Lonka, a fifteenth-century Jainist reformer.

Sthānakavāsīs reject all but thirty-two of the Śvētāmbara canon, which leads to natural comparisons with the Terapanthi movement.

There are few Sthānakavāsī Jains in North India, and Śvētāmbarins who are not Sthānakavāsins are called Murtipujaka.

Saints

Saints (ascetic Sthanakvasins, called yatis) wear white clothes and cover their mouths with a square white cloth or muhapatti intended to minimize the risk of inhaling small insects or other airborne life forms, which Sthanakvasins see as a violation of ahimsa "non-violence". They eat food collected from followers' houses and do not save edibles beyond the next meal and water is not kept even for a single night. All eating and drinking has to be done between sunrise and sunset.

Saints do not stay at one place for too long except for the four monsoon months, the chaturmas. Saints are also called dhundhiya "searchers" for their early practice of searching out and staying in abandoned or neglected structures to avoid disturbance from the public. Saints own no possessions except for a few books, a couple sets of clothes and carrying utensils made of a special natural material.

References

1. ^ Stevenson, S.: Heart of Jainism, p. 19

• Flügel, Peter (2008) 'The Unknown Lonka: Tradition and the Cultural Unconscious.' In: Caillat, Colette and Balbir, Nalini, (eds.), Jaina Studies. Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference Vol. 9. . Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, pp. 181–279.