Sarak

Sarak সরাক
Lord Adinath at Pakbirra
Religions	Jainism
Languages	Bengali, Hindi
Populated states	Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar

The Saraks (Bengali: সরাক) (from Sanskrit Śrāvaka) is a community in Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa . They have been followers of Jainism since ancient times, however were isolated and separated from the main body of the Jain community in western, northern and southern India. The governments of India and West Bengal both have classified Saraks under Other Backward Classes since 1994.

The Saraks are an ancient community in Jharkhand and Bengal. British anthropologist Edward Tuite Dalton noted that according to the Bhumij tradition in Singhbhum district, the Saraks were early settlers in the region. According to Santosh Kumar Kundu, the Saraks arrived from the north western region of India, presently in Uttar Pradesh. In the region between the rivers Barakar and Damodar, two democratic republics, Shikharbhum and Panchakot, flourished. Later they merged and came to be known as Shikharbhum, with the capital at Panchakot. According to Ramesh Chandra Majumder, the Jain scholar Bhadrabahu, the second Louhacharya and the author of Kalpa Sutra may have come from the Sarak community. The Saraks were agriculturists and moneylenders having landed properties.

They have continued to remain vegetarian even though this practice is uncommon among other communities in the region. Saraks have Parshva as a favored patron and recite the Ṇamōkāra mantra. They revere both Hindu and some Jain idols.

The region is called Vajjabhumi in ancient texts because diamonds were once mined in the region. The Tirthankara Mahavira visited this region according to the Kalpa Sūtra.The low profile ‘Sarak’ solely depends on agriculture for their livelihood. One can see numerous youngsters carrying axe in their hands who are unaware of the modernity of the progressive society. On the one hand where we feel highly responsible towards Indian values, there are ‘Sarak’, who are not even acquainted with education, technology and art. Peaceful and simple by nature, ‘Sarak’ people claim with proud that none of them have ever been to jail for committing any kind of crime. They are well accomplished in the art of arbitration and do not believe in any kind of violence. They do not even use words like, ‘kill’ or ‘cut’ in their daily conversation. They celebrate Jain festivals like Mahaveer Janam Kalyanak.