Jainism: An Indian Religion of Nonviolence

This book is a multi-faceted, thorough, and yet compact introduction to Jainism. It presents the history and scripture of Jainism, a religion that originated in ancient India and still exists today.

A work of primarily philological nature, giving a close look at the history and development of Jain scriptural traditions based on the tradition of German Indology, this accessible introduction is available for the first time for an English-speaking audience. Readers will encounter an accessible, easy-toread, and up-to-date overview of Jainism according to Śvetāmbara tradition, with reference to the Digambara tradition as well.

The author also offers anthropological, archaeological, and art-historical information from the field of Jain Studies. It will be of interest to students studying Religious Studies, Asian Religions and South Asian Studies as well as a wider public audience without in-depth previous knowledge of Jainism looking for a concise, yet innovative and insightful introduction.

Patrick Felix Krüger studied South Asian Art and Archaeology, History of East Asian Art at Free University of Berlin and South Asian History at Humboldt University of Berlin. Since 2016 he is Research Associate at Center for Religious Studies (CERES), Research Section for Jainism, of Ruhr-University Bochum.

Translators:

Marion Frenger is an independent researcher and art historian specialising in the arts of South and Southeast Asia. She has published on both pre-modern and contemporary South Asian art and co-edited Von Gibraltar bis zum Ganges. Studien zur Islamischen Kunstgeschichte in memoriam Christian Ewert (2010).

Christopher Jain Miller is Professor of Jain and Yoga Studies at Arihanta Institute, Visiting Researcher at the University of Zürich’s Asien-Orient-Institut, and Visiting Professor at Claremont School of Theology. He is the author of Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation (Routledge 2024) and the co-editor of Engaged Jainism: Critical and Constructive Studies of Jain Social Engagement (2025) as well as Beacons of Dharma: Spiritual Exemplars for the Modern Age (2020).