Shrut Ratnakar Centre for Indological Studies, Ahmedabad in association with Shri Mahavira Jaina Vidyalaya (Ahmedabad), JAINA (USA), World Jain Confederation (Mumbai) and The Jain Foundation (Bengaluru) present
6th International Jain ConferencePrakrit and Jain Wisdom in the Age of AI
From a classical language to intelligent machines; preserving, transmitting, guiding sacred learnings through the generations.
The first international conference on Prakrit after its recognition as a Classical Language of India.
Shrut is heard and transmitted knowledge. In the Jain tradition it names the scriptural corpus itself: knowledge received from the Jina’s speech, carried for centuries by recitation in Prakrit, then by palm leaf, paper, and print. Each of these was, in its time, a new technology of transmission, and the tradition adapted to each without surrendering its standards of accuracy and interpretation.
Silicon is the newest carrier. Digital libraries, optical character recognition, and language models are already handling Jain texts, whether or not scholars are watching. The question this conference poses is not whether that transmission will happen. It is happening. The question is whether it will be done well, and by whose standards.
Two recent developments set the occasion. In October 2024, the Government of India declared Prakrit a Classical Language. No international conference on Prakrit has been organized since that declaration; this will be the first. In the same period, artificial intelligence moved from research laboratories into the daily work of scholars, sometimes helpfully and sometimes with a confidence it has not earned.
The theme therefore runs in both directions. One direction asks how AI can serve Prakrit and Jain learning: preservation, editing, translation, teaching. The other asks what Jain thought can offer AI, since the tradition has spent two and a half millennia thinking carefully about truth, harm, restraint, and the limits of any single viewpoint. A conference that asked only the first question would treat the tradition as raw material. One that asked only the second would ignore the practical needs of the field. This conference asks both.
Who should come. Traditional scholars and pandits, university researchers in Jain, Prakrit, and Indological studies, AI researchers and engineers, librarians, archivists, manuscript custodians, and students. No session presumes expertise in the other side. A scholar with no interest in computing will find a full program on Prakrit literature and the meaning of classical language status. A technologist with no Prakrit will find concrete problems worth solving and an ethical tradition worth learning from.
Research papers, panel proposals, and posters are invited under three tracks. The topics below are indicative, not exhaustive; papers on any subject connected to the theme are welcome.
Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 January 2027, Ahmedabad, as announced at the valedictory session of the 5th IJC.
Abstracts will be printed in the conference souvenir. Selected full papers will appear in a peer-reviewed proceedings volume, continuing the series of publications released at previous editions.
For invited and accepted speakers, travel fare is reimbursed as per conference norms, and accommodation is arranged on a twin-sharing basis for the duration of the conference. Details follow with the acceptance letter.
In the tradition of earlier editions, the conference will include cultural evenings, book releases, exhibitions, and live demonstrations — this year including AI translation and manuscript OCR shown working on real Prakrit texts, with scholars commenting on what the machine gets right and wrong.
Founded by Dr. Jitendra B. Shah, former Director of the L.D. Institute of Indology, Shrut Ratnakar works on the preservation, digitization, and publication of Jain manuscripts and texts, alongside educational and outreach programmes in philosophy, language, and literature. The Centre has convened every edition of the International Jain Conference.
The umbrella body of Jain congregations across North America, working under a non-sectarian “One Jain” vision, with around seventy Jain centers and a stated goal of one hundred and eight. JAINA has partnered in the IJC from the first edition, and its past and present leadership regularly attend in person.
A confederation devoted to Jain unity, education, and heritage, increasingly focused on Jain academics and literature — including work on using artificial intelligence and language models to read original Prakrit texts, a concern that speaks directly to this year’s theme.
A century-old educational institution known for student hostels, scholarships, and a distinguished publication programme of Jain āgamic and scholarly literature. A collaborating institution of the 4th IJC and a longstanding presence in the conference family.
Founded by Ramesh Shah, the Foundation uses digital platforms to make Jain philosophy accessible worldwide, work that grew substantially during the pandemic years. A supporting partner of the 5th IJC.
Previous editions have also been supported by Gujarat University, JITO Ahmedabad, Shrut Bhavan (Pune), and Bharat Shodh Sansthan (Ahmedabad). The partner institutions of the 6th IJC will be confirmed in the formal announcement.
The International Jain Conference began as a simple conviction: that Jain scholarship deserves a stage where traditional learning and contemporary research meet as equals, in the city that has long been a home of Jain manuscript culture. Since the first edition, the conference has grown from an enthusiastic gathering into an annual fixture that scholars from India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and elsewhere plan their year around. Each edition has taken one idea and examined it from every side the community could bring to it.
The founding edition, organized by Shrut Ratnakar with JAINA (USA), set the pattern the series still follows: research papers presented on various topics related to the core theme by professors, and an audience that refused to fit in the hall. The first International Jain Conference was organized in Ahmedabad University.
Over thirty scholars examined forgiveness as philosophy, psychology, and daily practice. The World Jain Confederation joined as event partner, and the monologue Surishwar ane Samrat staged the victory of ahiṃsā over cruelty. This conference was organized at Gujarat University, after a prolonged break due to the pandemic.
Environmentalists, Jain scholars, and scientists read the tradition’s teachings on earth, water, fire, air, and vegetation against the climate crisis. Apart from the presentations by practitioners, the conference also featured exhibitions on Shatrunjay, Girnar, and Taranga pilgrimages which drew crowds of their own.
Held in the 2550th Nirvana Kalyanaka year of Bhagwan Mahavira Swami. Over 400 guests at the inaugural session, 48 research papers, lifetime achievement awards to Padma Shri Dr. Kumarpal Desai and Dr. Bipin Doshi, the premiere of a documentary on Jainism in Tamil Nadu and a drama on the life of Jaina monk Viravijaya.
The largest edition yet, with parallel sessions across two days and eight books launched. Something else happened here too: speakers kept turning, unprompted, to artificial intelligence — language models reading Prakrit, AI-based digitization of Jain texts, digital education. The 6th conference grew directly out of those conversations. This conference featured more than 72 speakers over the course of two days along with a presentation of a drama on the life of Kuntī.
6th International Jain Conference · Shrut to Silicon · 9–10 January 2027 · Ahmedabad
