Nadiad is a city in the state of Gujarat, India and the administrative centre of the Kheda district. It is known for the Santram Mandir, the Mai Mandir, It is the birthplace of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister of India.
The Jains in India are the last direct representatives of the ancient Shramana tradition. People who practice Jainism, an ancient religion of the Indian subcontinent, are collectively referred to as Jains.
Adherents of Jainism first arrived in the United States in the 20th century. Jain immigration began in earnest in the late 1960s and continues to the present day.
Valsad district is one of the 33 districts in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. It is bound by Navsari district to the north, Nashik district of Maharashtra state to the east, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli district of the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (DNHDD) union territory and the Palghar district of Maharashtra to the south. The Arabian Sea lies west of the district. The coastal Damaon enclave of DNHDD is bounded by Valsad district on the north, east, and south. The district's administrative capital is Valsad. The district's largest city is Vapi.
The Gujarati people, or Gujaratis, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who reside in or can trace their ancestry or heritage to a region of the Indian subcontinent primarily centered in the present-day western Indian state of Gujarat. They primarily speak Gujarati, an Indo-Aryan language. While Gujaratis mainly inhabit Gujarat, they have a diaspora worldwide. Many notable independence activists were Gujarati, including Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Vallabhbhai Patel.
Shrimad Rajchandra, also known as Param Krupalu Dev, was a Jain poet, mystic, philosopher, scholar, and reformer from India. Born in Vavaniya, a village near Morbi, he claimed to have attained recollection of his past lives at the age of seven. He performed Avadhāna, a memory retention and recollection test that gained him popularity, but he later discouraged it in favour of his spiritual pursuits. He wrote much philosophical poetry including Atma Siddhi Shastra. He also wrote many letters and commentaries and translated some religious texts. He is known for his teachings on Jainism and his spiritual guidance to Mahatma Gandhi.
The credit for introducing Jainism to the West goes to a German scholar, Hermann Jacobi, who translated some Jain literature and published it in the series 'Sacred Books of East' in 1884. In Europe, the largest Jain populations are in Britain, with a population of about 25,000.
Hinduism in England is the third largest religion in the country, with over 1,020,533 followers as of the 2021 census. This represents over 1.8% of the English population, up from 1.5% in 2011 and 1.1% in 2001. Hindus are predominantly in the cities of London and Leicester, where they make up greater proportions of the population. England has a number of Hindu temples, including the Hindu temple at Neasden which is a large Hindu temple in Europe. In 2007, the largest Hindu Mandir in the North of England, the Bradford Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple opened in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Kumarpal Balabhai Desai is an author, critic, editor, journalist, columnist and translator from Gujarat, India. He studied and later taught at the Gujarat University. He is associated with several social and Gujarati literary organisations such as Gujarati Sahitya Parishad. He has written and edited more than hundred books including biographies and several works on Jainism. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004.
Rakesh Jhaveri, also known as Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji, is a spiritual leader, mystic, scholar of Jainism, author and orator from India. Spiritually inclined from a young age, he is a follower of Shrimad Rajchandra, a Jain spiritual teacher. He completed doctoral studies on Shrimad's work Atmasiddhi. He founded Shrimad Rajchandra Mission, Dharampur which supports spiritual and social activities.
Atma Siddhi Shastra is a spiritual treatise in verse, composed in Gujarati by the nineteenth century Jain saint, philosopher poet Shrimad Rajchandra (1867–1901). Atma according to Jainism means "soul" or the "self" and "siddhi" means "attainment". Hence, Atma Siddhi is translated as self attainment or self realization. It is a composition of 142 verses in Gujarati, explaining the fundamental philosophical truths about the soul and its liberation. It propounds six fundamental truths on soul which are also known as satapada.
Jina Kanchi Jain Math, Melsithamur, is a Jain Matha that is located near Gingee, Villupuram district, Tamil Nadu, India.
Laxmisena, or Lakshmisena, is the name given to the head (Bhattaraka) of the Mel Sithamur Jain Math.
Vishwa Jain Sangathan (VJS) is a religious and social service organization of Jains in India. Amongst other things, it was involved in the Jain minority campaign.
Dakshin Bharat Jain Sabha (DBJS), also known as the South Indian Jain Association, is a religious and social service organization of the Jains in India. The organization is headquartered at Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India. The association is credited with being one of the first Jain associations to start reform movements among the Jains in modern India. The organization mainly seeks to represent the interests of the native Jains of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa.
The history of Jainism in Australia is relatively short when compared to the history of Christianity on the same continent. There are four Jain centres in Australia. The Jain population in Australia was counted in the 2016 census to be 4,047, of whom 38% lived in Greater Sydney, 31% in Greater Melbourne, and 15% in Greater Perth. The states and territories with the highest proportion of Jains are Western Australia (0.025%) and Victoria (0.022%), whereas those with the lowest are Queensland (0.006%) and Tasmania (0.001%). As per the latest census (2021), the Jain population in Australia is 5,851, which is a 44.5% increase between 2016-2021.
There are references in Jain texts to various areas of Southeast Asia. During the reign of Samprati, Jain teachers were sent to various Southeast Asian countries.
Yugpurush: Mahatma Na Mahatma is a 2016 Gujarati play based on the relationship between Jain philosopher Shrimad Rajchandra and Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. The play depicts the spiritual journey of Gandhi. It is written by Uttam Gada and directed by Rajesh Joshi. The original song for the play is composed by Sachin–Jigar. It is produced by Shrimad Rajchandra Mission, Dharampur and inspired by its founder Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai. The play is adapted into seven total languages including English, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and Kannada. It won the Best Drama award at the 16th Annual Transmedia Gujarati Screen and Stage Awards 2016. The play has completed 1004 shows as of November 2017.
