Article: Jains and the Mughals

Three Mughal emperors
Image by Asian Art Council: in memoriam Stanley Love © public domain

Jains participated in Mughal court culture in several ways during their 30-odd years of steady presence in the imperial centre. They championed policies that lessened violence against animals, taught the Mughals Indian religious practices and also explained Jain beliefs to the Mughal elite. Most of these events are known from Sanskrit and Gujarati materials, although Persian courtly works also occasionally refer to such practices.

Jain monks convinced both Akbar and Jahangir to enact policies promoting non-violence towards animals and to personally forgo hunting and eating meat on several occasions. Persian sources confirm these actions, although they do not always recognise Jains as being behind the policies.

Jains also introduced various Indian religious ideas to the Mughal emperors. The Tapā-gaccha monk Bhānucandra taught Akbar to recite the Sūrya-sahasranāma – A Thousand Names of the Sun. Bhānucandra’s biographer records that Brahmans provided this Sanskrit text to the Mughal king but could not explain its proper recitation. After learning it from Bhānucandra, Akbar repeated the work daily. Even European visitors to the court noted the emperor’s fondness for sun worship.

Jains also brought their own spiritual practices into the royal court. Tapā-gaccha monks occasionally performed the challenging mental feat of avadhāna – focusing on numerous things simultaneously. Fayzi, Akbar’s poet laureate, was particularly impressed when Nandivijaya demonstrated this technique before the imperial assembly. As a reward, Akbar gave Nandivijaya the Persian title of khūshfahm – ‘wise man’.

On one occasion, Kharatara-gaccha members designed an elaborate ceremony of 108 ritual baths to counteract an astrological curse on Akbar’s newborn granddaughter. Tapā-gaccha followers may also have assisted with the rite. The ritual involved Akbar and Prince Salim – later the Emperor Jahangir – presenting offerings to Jain idols.

Both Tapā and Kharatara leaders also attest that they explained Jain beliefs to the curious Mughals. In one instance, Hīravijaya is reported to have discussed the virtues of Jainism versus Islam with Abu al-Fazl, Akbar’s chief vizier. This is recounted in Devavimala’s Hīra-saubhāgya – Hīravijaya’s Good Fortune – and includes one of the few formulations of Islamic beliefs in Sanskrit. In many texts, however, such meetings unfold quite formulaically, and authors rely on standard ways of describing meetings between political and spiritual leaders.

Mughal Persian texts generally omit detailed accounts of the time Jain monks spent at court. But the Ā’īn-i Akbarī, the appendix to Akbar’s major court history, counts among the learned men of the age the three Tapā-gaccha monks Hīravijaya, Vijayasena and Bhānucandra. In addition, Bada’uni, an unofficial historian of the period, attests that Jain monks had frequent access to the king.

Rai Sabha Chand worships at a shrine
Image by Gift of Diandra and Michael Douglas © public domain

Jain writers mostly lauded these fruitful ties between their religious leaders and the Mughal emperors but also occasionally felt uncomfortable with the idea of ascetic monks attending a worldly court.

In 1610, the Tapā-gaccha community in Agra sent an illustrated vijñapti-patra to Vijayasena requesting that he visit to instal an idol. The vijñapti-patra featured a lavish illustration of a Mughal court scene by the well-known Mughal painter Śālivāhana.

Titles given by the Mughal rulers were also claimed with pride. Siddhicandra reports that he received the Persian appellation jahāngīr-pasand – ‘Jahangir’s favourite’. Akbar called Hīravijaya jagad-guru – ‘Teacher of the World’ – the name by which he is often known in Jain works.

But Tapā-gaccha writers sometimes show anxiety about world-renouncing ascetics developing close ties to earthly wealth and power. To justify connections with the Mughals, they often invoke previous examples of relationships between monks and kings, such as:

• Hemacandra and King Kumārapāla
• Keśī and King Pradeśī.

In these stories, the mendicant acts as a protector or spiritual adviser to the monarch, who is awakened to Jain beliefs.

Jahangir’s tomb
Image by Jugni © CC BY-SA 3.0

Emperor Jahangir had a more troubled relationship with Jain communities than his father, Akbar. Relations between the imperial court and Jains swung between amicable and antagonistic. But by the end of Jahangir’s reign Jains had fallen out of imperial favour.

Even as a prince, Jahangir violated his father’s orders restricting animal slaughter and pilgrimage taxes in Gujarat. After Jahangir ascended the throne in 1605, the leader of the Kharatara-gaccha, Jinasiṃha, foretold an early end to his rule. This prediction put the sect on rocky ground with the imperial court.

The Tapā-gaccha enjoyed a good rapport with Jahangir for several years. But, in the 1610s, Jahangir twice banned Jain mendicants from his court and populated centres across the empire.

A Śvetāmbara monk in the Tapā-gaccha tradition, Siddhicandra narrates the story of how Jahangir commanded him to marry despite his ascetic vows. Jain mendicants cannot marry and try to avoid the opposite sex, which Jahangir argued went against the nature of youth. The young monk refused to wed, even when threatened with being crushed to death by a mad elephant. Jahangir ultimately settled for merely banishing the stubborn ascetic, but he also forbade Śvetāmbara monks to enter cities throughout the Mughal kingdom.

In 1616, Jahangir issued an edict to Tapā-gaccha leaders promising them freedom to travel and worship as they liked. Members from both Tapā and Kharatara traditions take credit for convincing the emperor to withdraw his previous harsh dictate. Nonetheless, in 1618, Jahangir again exiled all Jains, probably for political reasons. There is little evidence that this order was enforced, but Jahangir has only negative things to say about Jains in his memoirs. By the close of Jahangir’s reign, relations between the central Mughal court and Jain ascetics had ceased.

Emperor Aurangzeb
Image by Edwin Binney 3rd Collection SDMA © CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

While Jain religious leaders fell out of imperial esteem under Emperor Jahangir, other types of interactions continued throughout the 17th century. Commerce remained a profitable arena for members of both faiths. Although the close links between individual Jains and the emperor were not revived under Jahangir’s successors, Jain writers continued to view the Mughals positively.

Trade connections flourished and so did political favours associated with business relationships. For instance, Shantidas Jhaveri sold jewels to members of the Mughal elite and obtained many farmāns that advanced his commercial and personal interests.

Occasionally, Jain merchants and political figures were forced to give money to Mughal activities. For example, Shantidas Jhaveri and Virji Vora financed the unsuccessful attempt of the governor of Gujarat, Murad Bakhsh, to seize the imperial throne from Shah Jahan in 1657.

A few Jain ascetics visited Aurangzeb’s court and received farmāns benefiting their communities. But they do not appear to have cultivated ongoing relationships.

Nevertheless, Jains wrote favourably about the Mughals, including Aurangzeb, in Sanskrit and vernacular languages throughout the 17th century. Several inscriptions at Shatrunjaya also describe the Mughals in complimentary terms. Jain artworks produced in Gujarat incorporated elements of Mughal painting styles during this period.

Nude monks carrying cloths
Image by Brooklyn Museum © CC-BY-NC

Digambaras do not appear to have interacted directly with the imperial court, but they nonetheless wrote about the Mughals. Digambara ascetic practices were also impacted at times by Mughal sensibilities.

In the late 16th to 17th centuries, there was a substantial Digambara community in Agra, including dozens of temples and two bhaṭṭāraka seats. But the Akbar-nāmah, Akbar’s official court history, claims that Digambara Jains were unknown at the Mughal court. There is also no evidence that any Digambaras met later Mughal emperors.

Even without direct relations, Digambara authors show a high awareness of the Mughals in their literature. For example, Rāyamalla describes the Agra bazaar and praises the Mughals in his late 16th-century Jambū-svāmi-carita – Acts of Jambū-svāmi. Writing in Hindi, Banārasīdās narrates how he was displaced as a child by Humayun’s army. He credits Akbar’s death in 1605 with largely prompting his devotion to a form of Digambara Jainism.

Digambaras also reflected on the effects of Islamicate rule more broadly during this period. For instance, written explanations of the bhaṭṭāraka institution began to emerge in the 16th century that justified mendicants donning robes under pressure from Islamic rulers. Full-fledged Digambara monks traditionally go naked, while bhaṭṭārakas wear clothing. Bhaṭṭārakas are known from at least the 14th century onwards, but the idea arises in the 16th century that this institution was developed largely in response to Islamic disapproval of public nudity.