erial privileges for elites, a situation amplified because Hindu spiritual teaching was traditionally conducted not by the text--India was largely illiterate--but by itinerant priests, who were well positioned to exert social control.
Out of Hinduism there developed Jainism, which adheres to caste traditions and acknowledges but does not highly regard the Hindu pantheon. Gods are less important in Jainism, which in particular rejects the notion of a Creator in favor of a view that the world is eternal (Molloy 135). Jainists are distinguished by vegetarianism, self-denial, and nonviolence. The divinity issue arises through the Jainist view that gods and men alike have eternally cyclical experience and are in a constant process of encountering karma, or material and spiritual fate, and reincarnation. Worship is therefore less important for devotees than behavior, a tradition that began with "the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira," who resolved "for twelve years [to] neglect my body and abandon the care of it" (Van Voorst 112). To free the soul from all attachments is to free it from suffering (Molloy 189-90). Appealing to God for help is out of the question for Jainists. Rather, they seem meant to come to terms with the cosmos.
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