The Sthanakavasi order traces its founding to the merchant Lavaji in the middle of the seventeenth century. Following the line of Lonka Shah's critique, its monks and nuns renounced temple images, worshipped in plain halls called sthanakas, and took to wearing the mouth-cloth permanently. The order became the parent body from which the Terapanth reform later separated.
Tagged: Jain Sthanakavasi
The Event
- Date
- c. 1653 (approximate)
- Era
- Reform Currents; Standard periodization of Jain history
- Location
- Gujarat; today Gujarat, India
- Traditions
- Jainism
- Streams
- Sthanakavasi
- Key figures
- Lavaji
Connections
- Lonka Shah; follows_from
Primary Sources
- The Jain inscriptional and temple record of the period.
Secondary Sources
- Dundas, Paul. The Jains. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2002.
- Wiley, Kristi L. Historical Dictionary of Jainism. Scarecrow Press, 2004.
Provenance: HIST-0611; confidence 0.85; accessed 2026-10-27.
Related on This Site
- dharma Glossary Term
- karma Glossary Term
- Acharya Bhikshu; Terapanth History Event
- Lonka Shah History Event
- Sthanakavasi consolidated History Event
- Ardhamagadhi and the Prakrits Language
- Sanskrit Language
- Namokar Mantra Prayer or Creed