Article: Śvetāmbara Terāpanthin

Links

Jain Vishva Bharati University

Located in Ladnun, Rajasthan, the Jain Vishva Bharati University is closely associated with the Terāpanthin monastic order. It also offers programmes in academic fields besides Jain studies.

http://jvbi.ac.in/

Two Śvetāmbara Terāpanthin samaṇī nuns

This YouTube video dating from 2009 shows two Śvetāmbara Terāpanthin samaṇīs tallking about their religious background and beliefs. They hold folded cloths in front of their mouths while they speak. Normally Śvetāmbara Terāpanthin monks and nuns wear a mouthcloth – muṃhpatti – permanently over their mouths, hanging from strings over the ears. Samaṇīs have important roles in teaching the Jain diaspora.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWQDmhVE9to

Terāpanthin monks and nuns

This YouTube video shows Śvetāmbara Terāpanthin monks and nuns walking down a street in New Delhi in July 2009. Clad in white and wearing the mouth cloth – muṃhpatti – they walk barefoot, carrying their monastic equipment in bags and bundles. They are accompanied by lay Jains, many of the women dressed in orange, which is a holy colour in India. Among the monks is Ācārya Mahāprajña, the tenth ācārya or leader of the sect, who died in May 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzZ_SHDSrAI

New monks and nuns receive their names

During a Śvetāmbara Terāpanthin renunciation ceremony – dīkṣā – Ācārya Mahāshraman, the present leader of this order, reads out the names of the new nuns and monks. Since mendicants are considered to be new persons, new monks and nuns are always given new names. Performed in Hindi, this ceremony found on YouTube takes place in Rajasthan in September 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEg3SOSJ3AU

Young woman becomes a nun

Dressed as a bride, a young woman is carried by her relatives to the initiation ceremony – dīkṣā. After the keśa-loca rite, the nun initiating her marks a svastika on her newly bald head in sandalwood paste. The new nun wears decorated robes, in contrast to the plain robes of her established colleagues. The nuns wear the mouth-cloth attached to their ears, which shows they are Śvetāmbara Sthānakvāsins or perhaps Terāpanthins. Based in Mysore, Karnataka Kannada News TV reports on 16 May 2010 on a renunciation ceremony performed in North India. The languages used in this YouTube video are Hindi and Prakrit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktrt1HL87WQ&NR=1

Hymn to Naminātha

This 2007 hymn on YouTube is a Sanskrit stotra to the 21st Jina, Naminātha or Lord Nami. The sound is accompanied by pictures of statues of Jinas and monks of various Jain sects. The plain statues of nude Jinas with closed eyes and the naked monks belong to Digambara sects. The white-robed mendicants are Śvetāmbara Mūrtipūjakas. The monks and nuns with mouth-cloths attached to their ears are from either the Terāpanthin or Sthānaka-vāsīn Śvetāmbara sects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ITs9VuKiEU