Tracking changes in Jain devotional singing

Over the last two and a half decades of research in the Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jain community in Pune, Maharashtra, I have been in a unique position to track changes in the ways that Jain devotional singing is performed. In order to discuss some observations I have made over these decades, I chose to track some notable consistencies and changes help illuminate the impact of socio-economic conditions on religious practices and musicality of the performances in the region. This chapter will contextualize the performance of one particular stavan, <i>Śrī Śankheśvar Pārśvanāthnu Stavan</i>, also known as ‘<i>Antarajāmī Suṇ Alavesara</i>,’ and examine how three performances of this <i>stavan</i> illustrate changes in the ways Jains perform devotional music over the last twenty-five years.