Saitwal

Saitwal (or Swahitwal) is a Digambara Jain community of Maharashtra. Swahitwal means that they work for the benefit of their inner self (Swa+hit+wal).

Part of a series on
Jainism
 Religion portal

Saitwal community is largely concentrated in Maharashtra state, though people from Saitwal community can be found in all over India.

The community is majority among Digambar Jains in Maharashtra. They are predominantly in profession of tailoring and have been spread in pockets of Vidarbha, Marathwada, Khandesh and in small proportion in Western Maharashtra as well.

Mostly the financially weaker section among otherwise well to do Jains. Over past few decades many of Saitwal Jains have achieved socioeconomic development with education and entrepreneurship.

Last year this community was awarded OBC status by government though it was deprived of such privileges for many years even after remaining weaker section of society due to misconception of being an integral part of elite Jain community.

History

Several Jain authors were born in this community. This includes Pasakirti (Sudarshana Charitra, shaka 1549), Brahma Matisagar (Adinath panchkalyanaka, shaka 1732), Nemsagar (shaka 1675-1776) etc.[1]

A bronze image of Chandraprabha has been discussed by J. C. Wright that has an inscription mentioning that it was installed by a person of Sehitavāla jati in Śaka Year 1559 (A.D. 1638) under the supervision of Bhattaraka Vijayakīrti.[2]

Religious organizations
Main article: Dakshin Bharat Jain Sabha

The Dakshin Bharat Jain Sabha is a religious and social service organization of the Jains of South India. The organization is headquartered at Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India.[3] The association is credited with being one of the first Jain associations to start reform movements among the Jains in modern India.[4][5] The organization mainly seeks to represent the interests of the native Jains of Maharashtra (Marathi Jains), Karnataka (Kannada Jains) and Goa.

gollark: I think if they had a network issue it would *stop* saying "typing" after about 5 seconds.
gollark: Directly probably not, but there are 'betalight" things which convert the beta radiation (electrons) from tritium in a tube into light.
gollark: You can get GPS precision of a few metres or better nowadays. It's very neat.
gollark: Relativity has some effects on GPS because of the very precise timing involved.
gollark: I don't know what specifically "Lagrangian mechanics" is used for, I assume it's for modelling some things in physics/maths.

See also

References
  1. Svahitavala Sandesh, Dec. 2011, p. 3-4
  2. Two Inscribed Digambara Bronzes, J C Wright, CoJS Newsletter, March 2014, Issue 9, pp. 34-35
  3. "People of India: Maharashtra - Kumar Suresh Singh - Google Books". Books.google.com. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  4. "The Assembly of Listeners: Jains in Society - Google Books". Books.google.com. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  5. "A World Religions Reader - Google Books". Books.google.com. Retrieved 30 January 2013.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.