A history rooted in towns and institutions

Jain heritage in Punjab extends beyond surviving temple towers. Muhammad Iqbal Chawla, Muhammad Hameed and Syeda Mahnaz Hassan identify Jain activity in Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala and Multan during the Mughal period, followed by substantial mercantile communities under Sikh and British rule. Their account describes commerce in cloth, grain and jewellery, together with banking, linking religious institutions to the economies of Punjabi towns.[1]

Their regional inventory includes places such as Jhelum, Narowal, Pipnakha, Rasulnagar and Kasur. It also draws attention to architecture shaped by the surrounding region’s artistic practices. These buildings belong within the history of Punjab’s towns, alongside the religious networks that sustained them. The same study describes the departure of most Jains from the western region at Partition, leaving a built heritage separated from its former congregations.[1]

Different ways of sustaining religious life

Peter Flügel and Muzaffar Ahmad’s survey distinguishes image-venerating Jain traditions from Sthanakavasi communities, whose practice did not depend on temple images. Their historical account traces the rise of the Lahore-based Punjab Lavaji Rishi tradition and later changes in religious buildings. Muni Khazanchand promoted halls, schools and libraries from the 1930s, beginning in Rawalpindi and extending his work to other Punjabi towns.[2]

The survey’s 2015–17 fieldwork documented not just temples but meeting halls, schools, hostels and neighbourhood names. It found that many structures had acquired other uses after 1947. The authors also emphasised the movement of portable art and libraries with refugees. A building’s survival therefore does not establish continuing Jain worship there, and a community’s departure does not mean that all its cultural possessions disappeared.[2]

Manuscript transmission

Purshottam Jain and Ravinder Jain describe manuscript collections dispersed among mendicants, householders and religious halls. Their report identifies women ascetics as important copyists within Sthanakavasi traditions. It also records manuscripts transferred from western to eastern Punjab during Partition. Religious literature moved through personal custodianship as well as formal institutions, making books another connection between places divided in 1947.[3]

At Malerkotla, the authors describe their own collection of approximately 300 manuscripts, assembled from gifts by monks and nuns. They also identify collections at Mansa and a donation by Sadhvi Svarn Kanta to Punjabi University at Patiala. These are the report’s historical descriptions, rather than a current stocktake. They show that Punjabi Jain heritage includes copying, collecting and teaching, alongside monumental architecture.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Muhammad Iqbal Chawla, Muhammad Hameed and Syeda Mahnaz Hassan / Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan 56(1). The Jain History, Art and Architecture in Pakistan: A Fresh Light ↗scholarly historical article · Source date: 2019 · Locator: Printed pp.219–220: regional presence, commerce, Partition and site inventory. Accessed 2026-11-01.Specified PDF passages inspected. Unsupported ancient chronology and speculative identifications elsewhere in the article are excluded.Return to A history rooted in towns and institutions, paragraph 1 ↑Return to A history rooted in towns and institutions, paragraph 2 ↑
  2. Peter Flügel and Muzaffar Ahmad / Centre of Jaina Studies, SOAS. An Exploratory Survey of the Jaina Heritage in Pakistan ↗university field-survey report · Source date: 2018-03 · Locator: Newsletter issue 13, March 2018, pp.26–28,30–32; sectarian history, buildings, migration and survey findings. Accessed 2026-11-01.Actual report inspected in the full newsletter PDF. Conditions are attributed to the 2015–17 survey, not represented as a 2026 inspection.Return to Different ways of sustaining religious life, paragraph 1 ↑Return to Different ways of sustaining religious life, paragraph 2 ↑
  3. Purshottam Jain and Ravinder Jain / Centre of Jaina Studies Newsletter, issue 10; reproduced by HereNow4U. Jain Manuscript Collections in Punjab: With Special Reference to the Sthanakvasi Tradition ↗first-person scholarly collection report · Source date: 2015-03 · Locator: Two-page reproduction; paragraphs on copying, Partition, Malerkotla, Patiala and Mansa; source attribution at end. Accessed 2026-11-01.Full two-page reproduction inspected. Original source is identified as March 2015; reproduction states publication 21 May 2016 and update 2 October 2016.Return to Manuscript transmission, paragraph 1 ↑Return to Manuscript transmission, paragraph 2 ↑
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Record PH-COM-0006 · English edition · human review not performed