Jain Merchants and the Wealth of Trade

Among the most distinctive features of Jain history is the enduring association of the community with commerce, finance and trade. For some two thousand years, Jain families have been prominent as merchants, bankers and traders across India, and the wealth generated by their commercial activity has underwritten the building of temples, the copying of manuscripts, the maintenance of the ascetic community and vast works of charity. This intertwining of faith and business has profoundly shaped both Jainism and the economic life of the regions where Jains have settled.

The affinity of Jains for trade has deep roots in the ethical structure of the religion itself. The strict Jain commitment to non-violence effectively rules out occupations that involve harm to living beings, such as agriculture, which disturbs the soil and its creatures, hunting, fishing or butchery, and many crafts. Commerce, finance and moneylending, by contrast, could be pursued without direct violence to life, and so became the natural and honourable livelihood of the Jain laity. The discipline, honesty and frugality cultivated by Jain ethics also lent themselves to success in business, and the reputation of Jain merchants for trustworthiness became a valuable commercial asset.

Historically, Jain merchants were central to the trade networks of western and southern India. In Gujarat, Rajasthan and the western ports, Jain traders participated in the flourishing commerce of the Indian Ocean and the overland routes, dealing in textiles, gems, spices and a wide range of goods. As bankers and financiers, they provided credit to rulers and to other merchants, and some rose to positions of great wealth and political influence, serving as ministers and treasurers to kings of various faiths.

The medieval period offers striking examples of this mercantile prominence. The ministers Vimal Shah, and later Vastupala and Tejpal, who built the marble temples of Dilwara, combined statecraft, commerce and immense philanthropy. Under the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals, the economic indispensability of the Jain merchant and banking class provided the community with a measure of protection and influence even under non-Jain rulers, and wealthy Jain laymen negotiated for the safety of pilgrimage sites and temples.

The wealth of the Jain merchants was channelled into acts of religious merit on a magnificent scale. The great temple cities of Shatrunjaya, Girnar, Ranakpur, Mount Abu and countless local shrines were financed by mercantile donations. The famous manuscript libraries, the bhandars of Jaisalmer, Patan, Cambay and elsewhere, were endowed and maintained by lay patrons, preserving the textual heritage of the tradition. Jain philanthropy also extended to charitable works benefiting the wider society, including the provision of water, food, shelter and animal welfare, the last expressing the community's characteristic concern for all living beings.

This pattern has continued into modern times. Jain business families have remained prominent in Indian commerce and industry far out of proportion to their small numbers, and the community is among the most prosperous and educated in India. The Jain diaspora, spreading to East Africa, Britain, North America and beyond, has often been built on commercial enterprise, carrying the tradition of merchant Jainism across the world.

The bond between Jainism and trade thus represents a remarkable case of religious ethics shaping economic behaviour, and of economic success in turn sustaining a religious tradition. The wealth of the merchants gave Jainism the material means to preserve its scriptures, build its monuments and support its ascetics through two millennia of changing fortunes.