The Jaina Cult of Relic Stūpas

Flügel, Peter

Abstract

This article gives an overview of recent findings on the thriving cult of bone relic stūpas in contemporary Jaina culture. Although Jaina doctrine rejects the worship of material objects, fieldwork in India on the hitherto unstudied current Jaina mortuary rituals furnished clear evidence for the ubiquity of bone relic stūpas and relic veneration across the Jaina sectarian spectrum. The article discusses a representative case and assesses the significance of the overall findings for the history of religions. It also offers a new theoretical explanation of the power of relics.

Citation

Flügel, P. (2010). The Jaina Cult of Relic Stūpas. Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 57(3), 389-504. https://doi.org/10.1163/156852710X501351

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jun 11, 2010
• Deposit Date: Jun 14, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 10, 2025
• Print ISSN: 0029-5973
• Electronic ISSN: 1568-5276
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 57
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 389-504
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156852710X501351
• Keywords: Jaina relic stūpas, mortuary rituals, Vallabha Samudāya, cultural unconscious, theory of generalized symbolic media, relics as social forms
• Publisher URL: http://www.brill.nl/nu