Thursday, September 29th, 2011 Dana: The Perils of the Gift

Description

Drawing on ethnographic analysis of the Rajasthan, India based contemporary Jain sect known as the Terapantha, and textual analysis of Medieval Jain lay conduct books, I will argue in my presentation today that although dana, the Jain practice of giving, particularly alms to Jain ascetics, is as close to being a truly free gift without any reciprocity – a notion implicit in the Maussian concept of the gift, nevertheless it seems that certain aspects of the Terapantha position on dana demonstrates that dana to anyone other than an ascetic may be perilous for the donor. This position is not only in opposition to other Indian traditions, such as Hinduism, but is also in conflict with all other contemporary Jain sects, which, I will show, has left the Terapantha open to criticism –criticism that has led them to alter their position in recent times.

Smita Kothari received her B.A. in English and Religious Studies from the University of Toronto in 2004 and her collaborative M.A. in Religion and South Asian Studies focusing on a comparative study of violence in the Bhagavad-Gita and the Sauptikaparvan (the sixth and tenth book of the Hindu epic The Mahabharata) from the University of Toronto. She is currently a Ph.D candidate in a collaborative program with the Department and Centre for the Study of Religion, the Centre for Environment, and the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. Her areas of study include the study of yoga in the Hindu and Jain traditions and the environment. Her dissertation “Dana and Dhyana in Jaina Yoga: A Case Study of Prekshadhyana and the Terapantha” is a textual and ethnographic study that explores notions of charity and meditation practices through a case study of a particular sect of Jainism. The dissertation examines, through the prism of charity and meditation, if and how such practices can be successful in responding to environmental and social justice concerns.