The Examination of Religion (Dharmaparīkṣā): A Jain Tradition of Narrative Adaptations

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Repetition, reconfiguration, or adaptation form key characteristics of the Indian literary traditions. Jain literature exemplifies this vividly, especially through its rich narrative tradition. This book studies one such narrative, known as the Dharmaparīkṣā ('Examination of Religion'), which has intrigued audiences for its ridiculing critique of Brahmanical beliefs and authority.
This book is the first to examine six versions of the story in classical and vernacular languages and from different periods together as a tradition of adaptations. Revealing the adaptive practices Jain authors applied as literary and socio-historical contexts evolved, the book offers a diachronic perspective on Jain polemics, and on the conceptualization of adaptation and translation in South Asia.
Copyright Year:
2026
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978-90-04-75531-4
Publication:
30 Mar 2026
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978-90-04-75530-7
Publication:
30 Apr 2026
Cover The Examination of Religion (<i>Dharmaparīkṣā</i>): A Jain Tradition of Narrative Adaptations

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About MyBook
Heleen De Jonckheere, Ph.D. (2020), Ghent University, is FWO senior postdoctoral fellow at that university. She has published articles and book chapters on Jain religion and literature in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Old Hindi. Her current project focuses on Apabhramsha literature in the tenth century.
Preface
Note on transliteration and translation

1 Introduction: The Dharmaparīkṣā tradition
 1 Many Dharmaparīkṣās
 2 The Dharmaparīkṣā narrative: a multilayered test
 3 Repetition, translation, and adaptation
 4 A History of Language Choice
 5 Book design

2 The authoritative adaptation: the Dharmaparīkṣā by Amitagati
 1 Amitagati at the Paramāra court
 2 ‘A debate on dharma’: the scholastic tendency in Amitagati’s adaptation
 3 A classical style for the cultivated
 4 The choice for Sanskrit
 5 Conclusion

3 The vernacularization: The Dharmaparīkṣā by Manohardās
 1 Manohardās in early modern North India
 2 Manohardās’s Dharmaparīkṣā as bhāṣā
 3 The audience
 4 Conclusion

4 Creating a regional(izing) Dharmaparīkṣā: Vṛttavilāsa’s Kannada adaptation
 1 Vṛttavilāsa in Kannada-land
 2 Vṛttavilāsa’s Dharmaparīkṣe campū
 3 Conclusion

5 The Dharmaparīkṣā in brief: Sanskrit epitomes after the Sanskrit cosmopolis
 1 Padmasāgara, Saubhāgyasāgara and Tapā Gaccha sectarianism
 2 Textual strategies in the Śvetāmbara Dharmaparīkṣās
 3 Adapting the Dharmaparīkṣā across sectarian divisions
 4 The Dharmaparīkṣā by Rāmacandra
 5 Conclusion

6 Conclusion: Processes of change in a frame of continuation
 1 Conversion and Othering in the Dharmaparīkṣā
 2 The Dharmaparīkṣā and popular religion
 3 Language choice and translation
 4 A reception history of the Dharmaparīkṣā
 5 Final thoughts

Appendix 1: The Dharmaparīkṣā narrative in detail
Appendix 2: Transliteration of pariccheda seventeen from Amitagati’s Dharmaparīkṣā
Bibliography
Index
All those interested in the history and literature of the Jains, and more broadly in premodern South Asian religion, literature, and multilingualism.
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