Great Nun as Mother: Hagiography and the Biography of Divyaprabhāsrījī, SOAS, University of London
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 08/04/2014

This lecture titled "Great Nun as Mother: Hagiography and the Biography of Divyaprabhāsrījī" was given by Whitney M. Kelting (Northeastern University, USA) at the Centre of Jaina Studies, SOAS, University of London as part of the 16th Jaina Studies Workshop: Jaina Hagiography and Biography on 21st March 2014.

You can find out more about the Centre of Jaina Studies at http://www.soas.ac.uk/jainastudies/

You can find out more about this event at http://bit.ly/1oJsvkk

This lecture was sponsored by SOAS, University of London; the V&A; Universiteit Gent; GSF and the Jiv Daya Foundation.

Abstract:
In the telling of Jain nun's life stories, the models of biography ready-to-hand - those of monks - are mimicked and reconfigured to adapt to the particulars of the gendered experience of Jain women. Laywomen's biographies struggle with finding a space within the Jain discourse where biographies glorify the Jinas and other religious exemplars, honour important Jain monks or highlight great layman donors and modify the layman's biographies with sati discourse. The biography at the centre of this talk was written to commemorate Divyaprabhāsrījī's fiftieth year as a Jain nun. In this biography, the hagiographic narrative conforms closely to the ideal renouncer's life and therefore the hagiographies of exemplary Jain monks serve as particularly productive models for comparison. Because of the relative conformity to the monks' biographical template for Divyaprabhāsrī's life, we can track the ways in which her virtue is constituted in gendered ways stressing her motherly care of her nun followers and lay women.