A religion practised in India (and by Jains around the world). It teaches that the soul does not die with the body: it is born again and again until it reaches perfection and is then freed. The “gods” in this teaching are those perfect, freed souls — not quite the same picture as God in Christianity. Jains are especially known for trying not to harm any living thing, even very small ones; that care shapes food, work, and daily life. It grew in India beside Hinduism and Buddhism, and people sometimes fold it into “Indian religion” as if it were a branch of Hinduism. Though actually, it is its own path, with its own teachers and its own aim of freeing the soul. The English name is simply Jain + -ism, the system of that community.