‘….how does one explain the numerical preponderance of nuns over monks? What is it that drives women—increasingly young and unmarried—to a life of itinerant mendicancy?’ (p. 8)? This question posed within the context of contemporary Jainism in the introductory chapter of Escaping the World by Manisha Sethi sets the tone for the ensuing discussion on gender and spirituality. Largely unaddressed in researches on Jainism till now, the question opens up new possibilities of analysing the access of women to renunciation and the gendered notions associated with it.
Unlike the brahmanical normative tradition that debars women from renunciation and confines them to the household as ideal wives, the Jain tradition provides a religious space for female renunciation and institutionalizes it by approving the presence of female mendicant orders and women ascetics. However, Sethi cautions us not to feel too optimistic about a feminist discourse within Jainism, despite ‘a preponderance of female ascetics in the Jain mendicant orders, with the number of sadhvis surpassing that of the sadhus by over three times’ (p. 4).