Somadeva Suri, a south Indian Jain monk of the tenth century AD, was the author of a work called the Upāsakādhyayana. It is a central text of Digambara śrāvakācāra literature. The aim of this literature is to lay down ideals, norms, and rules of proper conduct for śrāvakas, Jain lay followers. There is a large corpus of śrāvakācāra literature among both the Digambaras and the Svetambaras, the two major sects into which Jains are divided. The śrāvakācāra literature as a genre begins only in medieval times, though it has ancient roots. It continues down to modern times, much of the modern writing being in the vernacular.

Somadeva Suri's Upāsakādhyayana – literally, ‘the chapter on upāsakas’ that is, lay followers – is one of the earliest texts of the śrāvakācāra genre. Its influence on all subsequent texts of its kind is deep. It is a crucial text, I think, in trying to understand how medieval Jains articulated their own identity in relation to Jain ideals and to the larger society around them. What I have to say here will be based mainly on this text.

The Upāsakādhyayana is the last part of a much larger work, an epilogue to a religious novel called the Yaśastilakacampū which uses prose and verse with equal artistic care.