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, Śrī Śankheśvar Pārśvanāthnu Stavan, also known as ‘Antarajāmī Suṇ Alavesara,’ and examine how three performances of this stavan illustrate changes in the ways Jains perform devotional music over the last twenty-five years.