JAINpedia

JAINpedia’s three principal aims of increasing knowledge among Jains and non-Jains and offering academic resources are met by creating several areas in the website. Each piece is closely integrated with other parts, producing a seamlessly rich online experience.

There are two chief types of content in the JAINpedia website proper – images and contextual material. The contextual material helps website visitors understand more about the photographs of the manuscripts, which are at the core of the website, and about the Jain faith more widely.


Digital images

At the heart of JAINpedia are the high-quality digital photographs of selected items from leading cultural and research institutions in the UK. These digitised gems of Jain collections have been acquired by the Institute of Jainology from the project content partners: the British Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Wellcome Trust Library and the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.

Most of the thousands of images are of manuscripts but statues and other artefacts will be included in due course. Most of them have never been on public view before. Each image is copyrighted to the holding institution and full credits are given.

Contextual material

To help JAINpedia users understand the images, there is a host of contextual content to explain what is on display. There are now four main types of contextual content:

There is a multitude of further contextual content, offering a variety of ways to find out more about Jainism, both in its ancient past and its vibrant present.

Encyclopaedia

The encyclopaedia offers the most detailed and comprehensive background material to help understand the images on JAINpedia and the Jain faith more widely. It currently holds 128 articles, with many more planned. The aricles are arranged in four themes, called People, Principles, Practices and Places. Each one contains introductory articles and subthemes with articles covering aspects of the topic in more depth.

Each article is especially commissioned from invited scholars who cover their research interests. Most articles are written by Professor Nalini Balbir of the Sorbonne, JAINpedia’s editorial director and one of the most distinguished scholars of Jainism in the world.