Jain Monks Sweep the Path Ahead So They Don't Step on an Insect

Jainism is the smaller cousin of the great Indian religions — about 4 million adherents today, mostly in India — but its ethical core has reached far beyond its size. The earliest historical figure of the tradition is Parshvanatha, dated to roughly the 8th century BCE; the 24th and final tirthankara, Mahavira, was a contemporary of the Buddha in the 6th or 5th century BCE.

The heart of the system is ahimsa — non-violence — formalized as the first of the five Great Vows (mahavratas) that bind Jain ascetics: non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, non-possession, and celibacy. Lay Jains take milder versions; monks take the strict form. And in Jain ethics, ahimsa is not metaphorical. It applies to humans, animals, plants, microorganisms, and any being with a soul (jiva).

This logic produces some of the religion's most visible practices. Strict monks of the Digambara and Śvetāmbara traditions sweep the ground in front of them with a small soft brush before sitting or stepping, in case a small living thing is in the way. They wear a muhpatti, a cloth over the mouth, partly to avoid inhaling tiny insects. Many Jains drink only filtered water and eat no root vegetables, because pulling a root kills the plant and disturbs the microorganisms in the soil. Strict ascetics sometimes practice sallekhana, a ritualized fast unto death undertaken when the body can no longer practice its vows.

The broader influence is the more visible legacy. Mahatma Gandhi cited Jain ahimsa as a direct source of his nonviolent civil-disobedience strategy; he had grown up in Gujarat among Jain neighbors and corresponded with the Jain scholar Shrimad Rajchandra. The vegetarian and animal-welfare movements in India, and the global notion that nonviolence can be a coherent political program, both trace through this lineage.