About Jain Waves
Why we built Jain Waves
In 2008, one man compiled a printed directory so that the Jain families of Nashik district could find each other. Jain Waves grew from that idea — the same purpose, for every Jain in India, on a platform that can be kept current.
जैन ध्यास · जैन विश्वास · जैन आवाज़
જૈન ધ્યાસ · જૈન વિશ્વાસ · જૈન અવાજ
Jain Dhyas · Jain Vishwas · Jain Awaz
Our own community is hard to find#
Information about the Jain community lives in WhatsApp forwards, printed directories and people’s memory. It is real knowledge, carefully kept — but it is scattered, and it goes out of date quietly.
So when you move to a new city, when you travel, when you need to reach your sangh’s office bearer, when you want to know whether a Maharaj Saheb is staying nearby — there is no single place to look. You ask someone, who asks someone else.
The knowledge exists. It has just never had one place to live.
None of that is anyone’s failure. It is simply what happens when a community’s knowledge has never had a home. Giving it one is the whole of what we are doing.
The founder
Ashokchandji Mohanlalji Chopda#
Nashik, Maharashtra
In 2008 he compiled a directory of the Jain community across Nashik district, so that families across the district could find and connect with one another. That directory is the seed from which Jain Waves grew.
He has spent roughly twenty years on community work, and the focus has been consistent: strengthening the connections between Jain families and the institutions around them.
He has also helped school and college students reach minority scholarships and government schemes — explaining which schemes exist, who qualifies, how to apply and whom to approach. The Students section we are building is a direct continuation of that work.
About fifteen years ago he began the practice of the Nashik Jain community coming together to celebrate 31st December as a community. He has since handed it to other trustees, and the Nashik city Jain community has continued it every year without fail.
Alongside this he has done various other social work across Nashik and the wider Maharashtra region.
Three points on the way here
2008
The Nashik district directory
A directory of the Jain community across Nashik district, so families could find one another.
around 2011
approximate
The 31st December gathering
Begun by him, handed on to other trustees, and kept up every year since.
today
Jain Waves
The same purpose as the 2008 directory, for every Jain in India.
Have you done this in your city?
If you have done similar work where you live — a directory, a gathering, help for students — we would like to hear from you.
01 — What we are building
What we are building#
Three things, in this order. Everything else can wait.
A place to look things up
Derasars, sthanaks, upashrays, halls, bhojanshalas, dharamshalas and tirth stays — with timings, address and a phone number that has been checked.
See DiscoverA way to reach your sangh
Office bearers with their roles, maintained by the sangh itself rather than by us. Contact details that are current because the institution keeps them current.
See CommunityA voice for your area
Jain Awaz, in the app: news and announcements scoped to your area, your region or the whole country, moderated to guidelines you can read.
See the app02 — What we will never do
What we will never do#
These are commitments, not preferences. If we ever break one, hold us to it.
- No advertisements on religious listings, ever
- We will never sell community data
- Free for every institution, permanently
- No sect is defaulted, ranked or favoured
- We will not publish personal contact details without consent
03 — Our values
Three principles we hold ourselves to#
अहिंसा · Ahimsa
Non-violence applies to how software behaves, not only to what it says. No outrage, no engagement bait, no notifications designed to pull you back, no advertisements on religious listings, no dark patterns. A utility should answer your question and then let you go.
अनेकांतवाद · Anekantavada
Many viewpoints, one platform. Digambar and Shwetambar — Murtipujak, Sthanakvasi and Terapanth — are equal everywhere on this site. No sect is defaulted, ranked or favoured, no listing is promoted for payment, and where traditions differ we show both rather than choosing one.
अपरिग्रह · Aparigraha
Non-possession, applied to data. We collect only what is needed to answer your question, we do not build a profile from what you search for, we do not track you for advertising, and we do not sell community records. What we hold, we hold lightly.
Parasparopagraho Jīvānām
Souls render service to one another. — Tattvārtha Sūtra 5.21
The Jain Prateek Chihna, adopted by all Jain traditions in 1974–75 for the 2500th anniversary of Mahavira’s nirvana. The arc is the siddhashila, the three dots the Ratnatraya, the raised hand ahimsa, and the wheel within it dharma.
The swastika here is an ancient Indian sacred symbol of wellbeing, used in Jain practice for centuries. Its four arms represent the four states of worldly existence.
05 — Roadmap
Where things actually stand#
Written plainly, because a roadmap that oversells is worse than none.
What exists today
- This website, in English, with Hindi and Gujarati being written
- The directory research — including the Maharashtra community records
- The Panchang and Gyan sections, as outlines
Being built
- The listing data behind Discover, verified with each institution
- The mobile app — Android first, iOS to follow
- Area and region groups, and Jain Awaz
Deliberately not in scope yet
- Matrimony — frequently asked for, deliberately left out for now
- Payments, donations and messaging between members
- Institution self-service editing on the web (it comes to the app first)
The app is not released. There is no download link anywhere on this site, and there will not be one until it is genuinely available.
