Transmitting Jainism through U.S. Pāṭhaśāla Temple Education Part 1: Implicit Goals, Curriculum as “Text,” and the Authority of Teachers, Family, and Self

Abstract

In this first of two articles, I offer a summary description of results from a 2017 nationwide survey of Jain students and teachers involved in pāṭha-śāla (hereafter “pathshala”) temple education in the United States. In these two essays, I provide a descriptive overview of the considerable data derived from this 178-question survey, noting trends and themes that emerge therein, in order to provide a broad orientation before narrowing my scope in subsequent analyses. In Part 1, I describe Jain pathshala, from its Indian roots to the U.S. context, where sect-identity and mendicant authority have considerably less influence than in the subcontinent. I explore three research questions in relation to U.S. pathshala: (1) What is the goal of pathshala?; (2) What is the role of texts (such as sūtras or scriptures) in pathshala?; and (3) What is/are the current sources of authority in pathshala?

Key words: Jainism, pathshala, Jain education, pedagogy, Jain diaspora, Jainism and authority, Jains in the United States, Jainism and textual authority, second- and third-generation Jains, Young Jains of America, Jain orthodoxy and neo-orthodoxy, Jain social engagement, Jainism and modernity, sect identity, Jain ritual

Introduction

Pāṭha-śāla (hereafter “pathshala”) is a Sanskrit term meaning “house of learning.” In the context of India, pathshala evokes an image of people gathered under a shaded tree in the fresh air to listen to a learned teacher. Pathshala can be religious, such as a school for children to learn Vedic chanting from Brahmin priests, or secular. For example, the Pathshala South Asian Media Institute in Bangladesh is a training center for socially-engaged photojournalism.

In the Jain tradition, pathshala refers to any kind of education that perpetuates Jain values. In India, this education could take place in mendicant lodgings (upāśraya or sthānak[1]), where a monk or nun offers lessons (pravācana) in a teaching hall (Glasenapp 1999, 439), especially during the four-month long rainy season (cāturmāsa) when monks shelter for several weeks (Folkert 1993,167-174).[2] Conversely, sociologist Vilas Sangave describes the development of community-run pathshalas, as “indigenous schools” that passed on Jain knowledge in vernacular languages with little input from mendicants (2001, 76). In either case, pathshalas provided a forum for passing on the essential elements of a shared Jain worldview, including the tattvas and ethical teachings of ahiṃsā (Flügel 2005, 5-6). Pathshalas also offered a forum for sect- (saṃpradāya) or lineage (gaccha)-specific transmissions, such as reformers attempting to win lay Jains over to their alternate view, and for local communities perpetuating distinct regional, sect, and community rituals and practices (Dundas 2002, 45-51). While many lay Jains eagerly adopted secular education in the early twentieth-century, they retained the religious institution of pathshala to maintain and perpetuate Jain identity and praxis among lay people (Flügel 2005, 6; Sangave 2001, 76).

In the United States, pathshala transmits Jain ideals among immigrants who no longer have access to fully-initiated mendicants, and who are largely separated from regional, linguistic, and sect-specific communities. In this analysis—Part 1 of 2—I examine the institution of pathshala education in the United States based on a 2017 nationwide survey I conducted with Jain pathshala students and teachers. In this two-part summary, I provide a descriptive overview of the considerable data derived from this 178-question survey, noting trends and themes that emerge therein, in order to provide a broad orientation before narrowing my scope in subsequent analyses. In Part 1, I explore three research questions in the U.S. context: (1) What are the goals of pathshala?; (2) What is the role of texts (such as sūtras or scriptures) in pathshala?; and (3) What is/are the current sources of authority in pathshala?

After providing contextual information on Jain history, worldview, the relation between mendicants and lay Jains, and the context of U.S. pathshala, I describe the survey methodology, demographics, and strengths and weaknesses of the data set. I then make four assertions. First, that the goals of pathshala are implicit and are associated with four concepts that are of varying importance to respondents, namely: (1) knowing Jain values, (2) acting out Jain values (3) context-specific challenges, and (4) preserving cultural connections to India. Second, that the JAINA curriculum “blue books” function as the primary text for U.S. pathshalas and are more accessible and utilized than any Jain canonical texts. Third, that family members and pathshala teachers are seen as primary transmitters of the Jain tradition, more than any specific texts, suggesting a strongly oral mode of transmission, even in the absence of monks and nuns. Finally, self-motivated learning plays a significant role for students and teachers, expressed through a strong commitment to independent reasoning and critical thinking to evaluate the claims of the Jain tradition as well as the claims of modern society. Aligned with the emphasis on independent reasoning, pathshala teachers are widely perceived as open to discussing challenging or controversial social issues, and this quality—along with an energetic attitude and a willingness to explore the practical challenges of being a Jain—is deemed more important than whether or not a teacher was born in the same culture or a teacher’s actual knowledge of the tradition.

Jainism: A Community of Mendicants and Laity

Jainism has been largely defined since the 5th century BCE by the extreme austerities of its mendicant community. This small but culturally influential group of “houseless” monks and nuns withdrew from society, career, family roles, homes, personal belongings, and even mechanical conveyance—all the trappings of identity and worldly success—to follow the five great vows (mahā-vratas) exemplified by Mahāvīra, the “great hero” (5^th century BCE[3]), who was an elder contemporary of the Buddha, and considered to be the last of twenty-four liberated teachers, called Jinas or tīrthaṅkaras, in the present time cycle.

The first and central of these great vows is ahiṃsā, or nonviolence in one’s thought patterns, physical actions, and speech toward all life forms, including microorganisms, insects, fish, birds, mammals, and people. Jain mendicants permit neither voluntary harm nor the carelessness that could result in accidental harm. They require regular rituals of repentance to any living being affected by their existence. This vow of non-harm is followed by four others: (1) speaking truth (satya), (2) taking nothing that has not been given, including food (asteya), (3) giving up attachment to material possessions and ego (aparigraha), and (4) sexual celibacy (brahmacarya). By emulating the twenty-four Jinas, mendicants consider themselves on the path to eventual liberation (mokṣa-mārgaḥ). On this path of exertion, mendicants strive (śramaṇa) to control the vacillations, desires and aversions of their minds, body, and speech and to eventually free themselves from the heavy webs of karma that bind all living beings. They do this by adhering to detailed ethical rules on how to solicit and ingest food, manage hygiene and excretion, minimize speech, movement (only foot conveyance is permitted), and dress. In fact, the two dominant sects of the tradition are named for the clothing of their mendicants: the Śvetāmbara, or white clad, monks and nuns wear only a white fabric; the Digambara, or sky clad, monks wear no clothing at all, and thus, is a path of liberation available only to males, for whom public nudity is acceptable. In addition to these two dominant sects, other lineages called gacchas have also split off, resulting in a diverse Jain community in India—though significantly unified in its minority status and commitment to vows— that has been marked by particular differences in belief or ritual practice, differences ultimately linked to the complexities of mendicant life.

Unlike the mendicants, lay Jains participate in work, home life, and families. Lay Jains are characterized as those who take small vows (aṇu-vratas), or a weaker version of the great vows practiced by mendicants. However, as scholars have noted, lay Jains rarely take these vows under the formal direction of a monk or nun as prescribed in early texts devoted to the practices of lay life (Jaini 2001, 160; Laidlaw 1995, 173-175; Dundas 2002, 189-191). For most Jains, the five vows offer an orientation toward daily life—sometimes called the “Jain Way of Life”—that cultivates certain habits of mind, buying practices, or dietary rules such as vegetarianism, though some may regularly or occasionally take more stringent vows, including fasting or meditation.

Lay Jains may also have differences in ritual orientation. While the two Śvetāmbara gacchas (Stānakavāsi and Terāpanthī), for example, permit only mental veneration (bhava-pūjā) of the Jinas, another Śvetāmbara gaccha (Mūrtipūjaka, also called Derāvāsī or Mandir Mārgī) views material worship (dravya-pūjā) of Jina statues (mūrtis) as a core aspect of temple life.

As mentioned above, pathshalas in India transmit these diverse expressions of the “Jain Way of Life” to future generations through mutual support of and education by mendicants, and through lay communities perpetuating sūtras, rituals, or practices unique to a particular region or lineage. 

Pathshala in the U.S. Jain Context

In the United States, pathshala emerged to serve the needs of immigrant Jains who no longer had access to fully ordained mendicants.[4] In the U.S., no self-perpetuating Jain community existed until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that abolished quotas that had previously limited the number of Asian immigrants. This act also prioritized professional skills and family reunification (Williams 2000, 213). Lay Jains, many of whom were members of the merchant caste in India and who gravitated toward certain “nonviolent” jobs such as engineering, medicine, and banking, were well suited for these new criteria.[5]

In the early years of immigration to the U.S. after 1965, home temples served as places of worship and sites for social gathering. Some communities joined up with ecumenical Hindu temples to have Jain mūrtis installed, for instance, the Hindu-Jain temples in Monroeville, Pennsylvania and Baltimore, Maryland.[6] The first Jain Center opened in 1966 in New York. By the 1980s, the Jain community was sufficiently well established in urban centers of North America to justify the creation of its own societies and temples. For example, the Jain Society of Houston, where I live, was formed in 1982, and now serves over eight hundred families from both of the main sects as well as from distinct lineages. Jain Vishwa Bharati (JVB)[7] is a second temple community in Houston, started in 1999. JVB centers provide a unique ecumenical space for diaspora Jains and the wider Indian community centered on Prekṣā Dhyāna, a form of meditational and postural yoga created by Terapanthī monk Mahāprajña in the 1970s (Jain 2016, 236-237). As part of multiple reforms aimed at increasing social engagement among lay Jains, the head of the Terapanthī sect Ācārya Tulsī initiated an intermediate class of mendicants known as samaṇ (male) and samaṇī (female) to disseminate Prekṣā Dhyāna internationally to help address modern conflicts at the personal and global scale (236). Novice mendicants follow less stringent rules then their fully initiated counterparts, for example, using mechanical transportation to spread the practice of Prekṣā Dhyāna in India and abroad, and developing long-term relationships with lay people (231). JVB centers offer their own education programs for Jains and non-Jains, often with various modes of Prekṣā Dhyāna as a central element.  

Regular pathshala classes started in U.S. temples in the 1980s to teach young Jains about their tradition. Unlike in India, where multiple temples were woven into the fabric of neighborhoods and daily life, U.S. pathshala was tailored to suit the new context. As Diana Eck explains in her research on Hindu diaspora communities, “Pathshala is part of American identity and American expectations of temple building, electing officers, fundraising administration, work week, and ‘weekend’ religious school” (2000, 231). Similarly, Jain pathshala is often set up much like a Protestant Sunday school, with most classes meeting weekly or bi-weekly. The institutionalization of Jainism was further established through the founding of JAINA, or the Federation of Jain Associations in North America, in 1981 to serve as an umbrella organization uniting Jains in the U.S. and Canada “irrespective of their languages, regions, and traditions” around a biennial convention, social and professional networks, community publications, and education. JAINA estimates that there are 150,000 Jains in North America at present (JAINA). This figure is difficult to confirm, since the U.S. Census does not ask about Jainism in its religion section. However, a 2012 Pew Research Center report (“Religious”) calculated Jains as accounting for two percent of the Indian-American population, which was just under 3.5 million according to 2016 census estimates, resulting in a U.S. Jain population of approximately 70,000 (ACS Demographic 2016). Many estimates place the U.S. Jain population between these two figures, near 100,000 (Lee 2010, 487-488).

In 1992, Dr. Premchand Gada of Lubbock, Texas founded the JAINA Educational Committee. Utilizing materials compiled by Gada, the committee designed a four-level series of pathshala curriculum books—from elementary to college level—which were published in 1995 and 1997. In 2001, Pravin Shah, an engineer from North Carolina, took over as Chair of the JAINA Educational Committee, a position he still holds. With a committee composed of pathshala teachers, Shah began to synthesize national feedback on the early editions of the curriculum, primarily normalizing Sanskrit and Prākrit terms, improving English grammar, and addressing sectarian differences. The revised editions underwent several editing processes by teachers of both Digambara and Śvetāmbara sects before being sent to two monks in India for a final check. As evidence of the ongoing textual production of North American Jains, the third edition of the JAINA pathshala curriculum includes eleven JAINA Education Series Pathshala (JES) “blue books,” two of which were only just published in September 2018, as well as six additional reference books, all available at very low cost to temples or free in downloadable online format from the Jain E-library, another of Shah's projects (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Sample of JAINA Education Series Pathshala (JES) “blue books” and additional reference books

The JAINA educational committee states that presently there are approximately four thousand students and four hundred teachers at U.S. pathshalas (Shah 2017). Although not every pathshala uses the JES blue books, the large majority of them do. The twelve largest temple pathshala programs in the U.S. are as follows:

Region	No. of students	No. of teachers
Chicago	485	40
So. California	420	100
New Jersey	400	40
North. Calif.	375	42
North Texas	280	20
Houston	225	42
New York	150	15
Atlanta	140	30
Wash. D.C.	135	35
New Jersey	125	33
Phoenix	120	12
Boston	110	13

Table 1.1 Twelve largest pathshala programs, by region, in the United States, 2017 (Shah 2017b)

Methodology

Motivated by questions of how pathshala perpetuates Jain identity in transnational contexts, I designed a survey titled, “Transmitting Identity through Pathshala Temple Education Among U.S. Jains.” Although valuable scholarship exists that examines Jains in diaspora (Banks 1991, Kumar 1996, Vallely 2008, Jain 2011, Radford 2004, Shah et al. 2011), and even the mechanisms of adaptation among Jain youth (Mehta 2017, Valley 2004, Shah 2014 and 2017, Vekemans 2014), there has been little examination of pathshala itself, with only one doctoral candidate currently undertaking a comparative study of pathshalas in India and the United States.[8]

From October 2016 through January 2017, I vetted the survey with groups of pathshala students (aged fourteen and above) and separate groups of pathshala teachers within the Jain temples of Houston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The age of fourteen was established through conversations with pathshala teachers, as this age was the general cut-off for participation in high school pathshala classes. Each focus group lasted for seventy-five minutes and involved participants reviewing the survey questions aloud, with the following prompts printed on sheets for their consideration:

• Change a question for accuracy
• Change a question to make it more interesting
• Add a question that is missing
• (or consider) What would you want to ask if you could ask a Jain student or teacher anything?

I also vetted the survey through Skype and email correspondence with board members of Young Jains of America. These focus groups were especially valuable when selecting terms that would cause the least confusion between temples, e.g. using “scripture” rather than “texts” when referring to specific ancient Jain sūtras, or identifying overlooked complexities in diaspora relational networks, for example by adding “a respected elder” to the list of possible people who transmit information related to Jain history, ritual, and ethics. The final survey consisted of 178 multiple-choice and open-ended questions located on the Qualtrics digital platform of Rice University.

In May 2017, I contacted approximately one hundred pathshala coordinators at seventy-three Jain centers across the United States by both phone and email after having received the list of centers and coordinators from Pravin Shah, the Chair of the JAINA Education Committee. I also contacted the individual students and teachers who had participated in the earlier focus groups, as I had collected their email addresses during our sessions. Each email contained a brief description of the research project, including a two-minute introductory video[9], and a link for the survey. The informed consent form for adults was embedded in the survey, as were the parental consent and participant assent forms for students under 18 years old. Young Jains of America also placed a link to the survey on their website. In the email, I asked teachers to have their students complete the survey in class if possible, and to take the survey themselves. I also issued follow-up emails and calls. The full survey can be viewed as Appendix A to this article. The survey was open from May-July 2017.

Demographics

The total number of respondents was 178. Of these, 59 completed less than 10% of the survey (namely, the demographics), and their responses were discarded from the data set, leaving a total of 119 participants. Fifty-six were students (36 current and 20 former) and 63 were teachers (37 current and 26 former). 119 respondents completed at least 10% of the survey; 92 completed at least 36%; 76 completed at least 69%; and 69 completed 100% of the survey (22 students and 47 teachers). Additionally, 35% of teachers also reported attending pathshala as students in the U.S., many of them for more than five years: 5-7 years (15%), 7-10 years (16%) and 10 years or more (62%). Approximately 60% of teachers have taught for between 2-5 years, and 29% have taught for six years or more.

Pathshalas meet according to various schedules. Respondents reported meeting:

• every week, year round (4%, n=102)
• every week when school was in session (24%)
• every two weeks, year round (29%)
•  every two weeks when school was in session (23%)
• monthly (20%)

Only one participant reported teaching at an online pathshala. In the U.S., the majority of survey respondents attended pathshala in a temple setting (61%, n=102), while some attended in a private home (25%) or in both types of environment (10%). One pathshala used facilities at a local college to hold its classes. 

The gender makeup of participants was: male (46); female (72); and neither (1). The age breakdown was as follows:

14-17      41

18-23     18

24-29       4

30-39     15

40-49     20

50-59       9

60-69       6

70-79       6

Total     119

Respondents were born within the U.S. (51%, n=119) and outside the U.S. (49%).[10] Their education levels were as follows:

Middle school 3

High school 41

High school diploma 6

Four-year college 33

Master’s Degree28

MD 6

PhD 1

Weaknesses and Strengths of the Survey

The survey reflects the bias of those who are involved in the Jain pathshala as past or current students and teachers. Additionally, many students (S) and teachers (T) had participated in Jain Academic Bowl, a nationwide competition for students who have studied the pathshala curriculum (S 29%, n=51; T 22%, n=49). Several individuals had also served in leadership positions for Young Jains of America, for example, as local representatives, or as members of the executive board or convention committee (S 45%; T 29%). Consequently, this data reflects a population that is already invested to various degrees in Jain education and social leadership, an as such it is not necessarily indicative of the U.S. Jain community as a whole.

The considerable length of the survey resulted in lower numbers of respondents for the latter questions, especially among students. Fifty-six students completed at least 16% of the survey; 34 completed 36%, 26 completed 69%, and 22 completed 100%. This constitutes a fraction of the total pathshala student population as reported by JAINA (4,000 students), although the survey targeted only students in the 14+ age group. The lower numbers of students are somewhat offset by the fact that many teachers have also attended pathshala as students in India (T 57%, n=49) and the United States (35%), allowing them to contribute to the survey from their experiences as both students and teachers.

The sample size for teachers is a considerably more significant portion of the total teacher pool. Fifty-nine teachers completed 36% of the survey; 44 completed 69% of the survey, and 42 completed 100% of the survey, representing between 10.5 and 14.75% of the overall population of four hundred instructors reported by JAINA. The insights offered by teachers constitute a strong baseline for this and future analyses.

A note on diacritics: Since most U.S. Jains transliterate Sanskrit and Prākrit terms without diacritics, I followed this convention in the survey. Survey participants also did not use diacritics in their open-ended answers, which I have normalized only for spelling and/or clarity. Thus, within this paper, I will utilize diacritics in my explanatory sections, but any questions or answers within the survey will not include them. After the first use of “pāṭhaśāla” in the title and introduction, I write “pathshala” without diacritics.

Goals of Pathshala

One of the obvious, if sometimes unstated, goals of any form of religious education is to attract a community of participants that values the experience of learning. The majority of participants, both students (S) and teachers (T), felt that pathshala was extremely important (S 71%, n=34; 92% T; n=49) with the remainder feeling it was somewhat important (S 21%; T 8%) or having a neutral opinion (S 6%). Many survey participants also expressed a desire to attend pathshala. When presented with the statement, “If I had my absolute free choice,” the majority of teachers and a significant minority of students responded that: “I would regularly go to pathshala” (S 35%, n=51; T 63%, n=49;). Other possible answers included: “I would occasionally go to pathshala” (S 35%; T 14%) and “I would not go” (S 22%; T 19%). The majority of respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the statement: “I enjoy attending pathshala” (S 82%; n=51; T 100%; n=49).

Generally speaking, the goal of pathshala is to transmit Jain values to children raised in Jain families. In India, this education has frequently been taught in sect-specific temples, shaped by the surrounding geographic culture, and taught by family members, teachers, and traveling mendicants. In the U.S. context, when asked to describe the “the primary goal/s of pathshala classes as I understand them,” those participants who answered this open-ended question (n=48; S 12, T 36) offered responses that are associated with four themes, each of which has varying degrees of importance to respondents: (1) knowing Jain values, meaning the general transmission of knowledge or values (25%), (2) acting out Jain values, meaning teaching Jainism as a daily mode of living (46%), (3) context-specific challenges of translating the tradition for Jains living in the U.S. (19%), and (4) preserving cultural connections to India by building a (non-sectarian) community and Jain cultural knowledge (23%). I will address each of these responses in turn.

Knowing Jain Values

Approximately one-quarter of respondents who answered the question concerning “The primary goal/s of pathshala classes, as I understand them” (S 17%; n=12; T 28%, n=36) described the aims of pathshala in terms of passing on the values and/or philosophy of the tradition in a general sense. Answers in this category included:

• to teach us about Jain philosophy
• to encourage youth to think about Jain values
• to discuss Jain values
• to create a foundation
• to learn about our religion
• to pass on Jain values
• to give kids religious values
• to learn Jainism
• to learn/teach Jain principles
• to teach Jainism
• to teach Jain principles

Acting Out Jain Values

The highest number of respondents (S 58%, n=12; T 28%, n=36) described the goals of U.S. pathshala as teaching Jainism as a tradition that must be lived out, and not merely understood through its knowledge and philosophy. It is feasible that many respondents included action as an integral aspect of “knowing” Jain values, though this was not made explicit.

In many ways, Jainism as a “way of life” is reflective of the tradition’s history as a śramaṇic, or “striver,” community that emphasizes the pursuit of the three jewels (ratna-traya) of right perception, knowledge, and action within the karmic path of all living beings. In the context of ancient India, the śramaṇic path was open to all who could pursue an austere path of non-harm as an alternative to the priestly path of Vedic ritual performance, which was available only to a select few.

Scholars have pointed out, however, that the five great vows of Jainism are typically practiced by mendicants through renunciation rather than through social engagement (Dundas 2002, 103; Cort 2002, 70). Certain early canonical texts also criticized householders for their lack of restraint,[11] leading one scholar to identify the orthodox Jain goal as an “ethic of quarantine” (Laidlaw 1995, 153). Yet, from the medieval period, the canon also includes a tradition of positive compassion that has informed both mendicant and lay practice (Wiley 2006).

Thus, the community of lay Jains has historically been characterized by a persistent tension—or perhaps a pursuit of balance—between applied practice and virtuous restraint. In addition to the five main vows, lay Jains are prescribed three supplementary vows (guṇa-vratas) and four spiritual disciplines (śīkṣā-vratas) to address daily harm in movement, occupations, feeding mendicants, and meditational practices, among other aspects unique to a lay context (Williams 1991, 55-64).[12] Diaspora scholars have especially noted how young Jains living abroad interpret the Jain commitment to nonviolence not only personally, but also socially and ecologically (Vallely 2002b, Otterbine 2014, Shah 2014, Evans 2014).

Survey respondents who understand the goals of pathshala as transmitting a mode of living or applied practice describe this aspect in the following terms (S 58%, n=12; T 28%, n=36):