Eric Villalobos is a fourth-year PhD student in the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. His research uses ethnographic and historical methodologies to examine the so-called “semi-renunciant” yati monastic lineages within Mūrtipūjaka Śvetāmbara Jainism in North India. This project takes him through the history of Indian monasticism, astrology, mantra science, and the colonial encounter with South Asian Indigenous medical systems. Eric received his BA in religious studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his MA in South Asian area studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
Eric’s Fulbright-Nehru project is exploring the historical collaboration between Rajasthani kingdoms and Jain merchant communities in promoting Jain monks as medical practitioners during the colonial era. He is seeking answers as to how and why Jain monks, supported by Rajasthani kings and the Jain merchant community, transformed modern Āyurveda into a distinctly Hindu-identified medical science. To this end, he is conducting research in Rajasthan State Archives at Bikaner, examining the royal court documents of the Rajput kingdoms, especially of Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udaipur. Beyond this, he is gathering oral histories about Jain monastic rest houses which functioned as traditional medical houses during the colonial period.