Jainism and UniTo

The centre of Jain Studies at the University of Turin

First six auspicious dreams This manuscript painting illustrates some of the auspicious dreams of the mother of a baby who becomes a Jina. According to the Śvetāmbara sect, she has 14 dreams. The dreams pictured here run from the first onwards. Beginning with the elephant, the dreams feature a bull, lion, the goddess Śrī, a pair of garlands and the moon – frequently symbolised by a deer in Indian art. Copyright CC0 1.0 (Creative Commons Public Domain) British Library Source: JAINpedia / Institute of Jainology

The goal of our research is to undertake projects and initiatives that introduce Jain cultural and spiritual heritage both within and outside academia in Italy in order to provide opportunities to introduce Jain values relevant to today’s society and extend them to different domains and allied fields of study.

As part of the project, we aim to establish a centre of Jain Studies at the University of Turin and to engage and collaborate with local communities, organisations, and institutions to ensure applied learning (for example, the collaboration with the Dept. of Religious Studies and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Turin).

Special attention will be devoted to initiating a dialogue with other European universities and institutions engaged in Jain Studies to promote intellectual exchange in search of a common research ground. In this regard, we will organise a conference on Jain diasporic minorities in the world and two academic courses: a three-year course on the introduction to Jainism and an annual one on the Anthropology of South Asia with a focus on the Anthropology of Jainism.

Bridging symbols

Our logo is a synthesis of two traditions: the academic with the bull as the symbol of the University of Turin, and the spiritual with the bull representing the first Tīrthaṅkara, Ādinātha, which gives its name to our former curriculum. Even the choice of the colour, red in both cases, reflects the attempt to build a bridge between the two paths of knowledge. Finally, in the inner part of the circle in the logo, above the image of the bull, the inscription “seva” represents an acrostic formed by the initials of the names of the scholars forming the research group: Sara, Erika, Veronica, Alessandra.