Jain Marriage Biodata Format for a Girl and a Boy

A Jain marriage biodata has the same sections as any other: personal details, education and career, family, a short piece about you, what you're looking for, and how to reach you. Three lines make it a Jain biodata: your sect, how you eat, and a plain line on how you practise. Gotra and the horoscope rows are different. Some Jain families use them and many don't, so keep them only if yours does.

There are two complete formats below, one for a girl and one for a boy, and both paste straight into Word or Google Docs. The rest of this guide covers the lines that are particular to a Jain biodata and how to word them. For the general structure, and why each section is there, see the marriage biodata format guide.

Fixing a downloaded format: keep, drop, add

Most free formats online are written for a Hindu family. A Jain biodata shares more rows with those formats than a Muslim or Christian one does, so the job isn't to delete the horoscope block wholesale. It's to decide what your family actually uses.

• Keep gotra, if your family has one and uses it. Keep birth time, birth place, rashi, nakshatra and manglik status only if someone will compare horoscopes.
• Drop any row nobody in your family will read. Drop the caste row too, unless it's something your family genuinely looks for. The section on community lines below covers the alternatives.
• Add your sect, a food line and a line on practice.

Don't leave unused rows on the page with "N/A" beside them. It tells the reader the format wasn't made for you, and it fills the page with rows that say nothing. If your family needs a Muslim or Christian biodata too, the Muslim and Christian formats make the same fix for those.

Sect: what to write

Jains belong to one of two main traditions, Digambar and Shwetambar. Within the Shwetambar tradition, many families also name the branch they follow. Spellings vary (Svetambar, Shvetambar, Swetambar), so write it the way your family does.

These are the lines you'll see most often, in alphabetical order:

Write the main tradition before the branch. There's also a Digambar Terapanth, a separate reform tradition that shares the name, so "Terapanthi" on its own can be read two ways.

Some Murtipujak families add their gachchh, the line of monks the family follows, such as Tapa Gachchh or Kharatara Gachchh. If your family would expect to see it, add it in brackets after the sect.

Religion: Jain

Religion: Jain (Digambar)

Religion: Jain (Shwetambar Murtipujak, Tapa Gachchh)

Religion: Jain (Shwetambar Sthanakvasi)

Religion: Jain (Shwetambar Terapanthi)

Religion: Jain. Father Shwetambar, mother Digambar. I follow both.

A sect on the page can read as a condition to a family from another tradition. So write one because it tells the reader something you want them to know, not just because the format has a row for it. If sect doesn't matter to you, "Religion: Jain" says everything that's needed.

Food: the line that needs the most care

Food is the line a Jain biodata gets most specific about, and it's the one generic formats handle worst. A downloaded format usually offers "Veg / Non-veg", which doesn't say what a Jain family wants to know.

"Jain food" usually means vegetarian food cooked without onion, garlic, potato, carrot or any other root vegetable. You'll see the same meaning on a restaurant menu. Some families go further. Chauvihar means not eating, and in its strictest form not drinking water either, between sunset and sunrise. Navkarsi means not eating or drinking until 48 minutes after sunrise.

How strictly people follow these varies a lot, including within one family. So the useful line is the one that matches how you actually eat, not the strictest one you could write:

Food: Jain food. Follows chauvihar.

Food: Jain food (no onion, garlic or root vegetables)

Food: Jain food at home; vegetarian outside

Food: Vegetarian

Food: Vegetarian. Follows chauvihar during Paryushan.

This is a preference line, not a test. "Vegetarian" is a complete answer. Be accurate, though, because daily life after marriage runs on it. A family that reads "Jain food" will plan around every meal being Jain, and finding out otherwise over the first dinner together is harder than reading it on paper.

How you practise, written as facts

"Religious", "practising" and "from a religious family" mean something different to every reader. Say what you actually do:

Practice: Goes to the derasar most mornings. Attended pathshala
through school.

Practice: Goes to the Jain mandir with the family on festivals and
observes Paryushan every year.

Practice: Observes Das Lakshan Parva with the family and goes to the
mandir on Sundays.

Practice: Attends the sthanak with parents during Paryushan and when
monks or nuns are visiting.

Practice: Goes to the temple on festivals and family occasions.
Comfortable with a partner who is more observant.

A few of those words need explaining for readers from outside the community:

• Derasar is the word many Gujarati and Rajasthani families use for a Jain temple. Many families say mandir, and in Karnataka a Jain temple is often called a basadi.
• Paryushan is the most important Jain festival of the year. Shwetambar families observe it for eight days. Digambar families observe Das Lakshan Parva, which lasts ten days.
• Pathshala means classes in Jain teachings for children, often held at the local temple.

Write only what's true and what matters to you. If you'd rather this came up in conversation than on a document that gets forwarded, leave it out. The About Me guide has more on replacing adjectives with facts, and it works just as well here.

Gotra and the horoscope rows

Many Jain families have a gotra, a family lineage passed down on the father's side, and some families avoid a match within the same gotra. If yours has one and it matters to your family, give it its own line. If nobody in your family has ever asked about it, leave it out.

Horoscopes are the same. Some Jain families compare them before a conversation goes further, and they'll need the birth date, time and place to do it. Many others don't look at one. The cultural and horoscope section of the format guide goes through each of these rows.

Gotra: [your gotra]

Date of Birth: 14 August 1995
Time of Birth: 6:40 am
Place of Birth: Kolhapur
Rashi: Tula

If your family uses neither, a biodata with age and no horoscope block is complete as it is.

Community lines

Some Jain biodatas carry a samaj line: the community the family belongs to, often named after a region or a family group. Some families look for it. Many others think it doesn't matter, and some object to being asked.

If it's a real condition for your family, include it in one line, with no commentary, because an unstated condition comes up later and at a worse moment. If it isn't, leave the row out. Plenty of biodatas don't have one.

Partner preferences: sect, food and religion

Most of what a Jain family writes in partner preferences is the same as anyone else's: age, education, work and city. The lines that differ are sect, food and religion, and each is worth wording carefully:

Religion: Jain; sect not a condition

Religion: Jain; Digambar preferred, open to Shwetambar

Religion: Jain preferred; open to a vegetarian family of any religion

Food: Vegetarian. Should be comfortable with Jain food at home.

Choose between "preferred" and "only" carefully. "Preferred" keeps a door open that "only" closes, and readers treat whatever's written as a requirement. The partner expectations guide covers how to tell a real condition from a preference, and how to word each one.

The top line

Some Jain biodatas begin with "Jai Jinendra", a greeting many Jains use. Some begin with the first line of the Navkar Mantra, the prayer Jains of every tradition recite, or with a small image of a Tirthankara. Many have none of these. Use what your family uses.

Jain marriage biodata format for a girl

Plenty of people write their own biodata, and the first person suits that. This one is from a Shwetambar Murtipujak woman whose family is in Ahmedabad and who works in Bengaluru.

Jai Jinendra

PERSONAL DETAILS
Name: Nidhi Shah
Date of Birth: 3 March 1998
Age: 28
Height: 5 ft 3 in
Marital Status: Never married
Mother Tongue: Gujarati
Native Place: Ahmedabad
Current Location: Bengaluru

EDUCATION & CAREER
Education: B.Des, Interaction Design (2020)
Occupation: Senior product designer at a fintech company, Bengaluru
Annual Income: ₹18 lakh per annum

RELIGION & LIFESTYLE
Religion: Jain (Shwetambar Murtipujak)
Food: Jain food at home; vegetarian outside
Practice: Goes to the derasar with family when home in Ahmedabad and
observes Paryushan every year.

FAMILY DETAILS
Father: Hitesh Shah, runs a pharmaceutical distribution business
Mother: Rupal Shah, teaches mathematics at a school in Ahmedabad
Siblings: One younger brother, final year of B.Tech in Gandhinagar
Family Background: The family has lived in Ahmedabad for three generations.

ABOUT ME
I design the screens of a banking app, which mostly means watching people
get stuck on something and then working out why. I moved to Bengaluru in
2021 and still call home most evenings. I cook more than most people I know,
and I've got good at Jain versions of dishes that usually need onion and
garlic. Weekends are for long walks and the occasional trek. I'd like to
keep working after marriage, and I'm open to living in Bengaluru or
Ahmedabad.

PARTNER PREFERENCES
Age: 28 to 33
Education: Graduate or above
Profession: Working professional
Religion: Jain; sect not a condition
Food: Vegetarian
Location: Bengaluru or Ahmedabad

CONTACT
Phone: 98XXXXXX21
Email: nidhi.shah@example.com

Two lines here are worth noticing. The food line is honest about eating outside, which a family planning around every meal would want to know. And "sect not a condition" tells a Digambar family they're welcome to get in touch, which "Jain (Shwetambar Murtipujak)" on its own would leave them unsure about. There's no gotra and no horoscope, because her family doesn't use them.

For the questions girls get asked about most, like height, salary and photos, see the marriage biodata format for a girl.

Jain marriage biodata format for a boy, written by a parent

Parents often put a son's biodata together, and it reads naturally in the third person when they do. This one is from a Digambar family in Kolhapur whose son is a doctor in Pune. His family does compare horoscopes, so the birth details stay in.

PERSONAL DETAILS
Name: Dr. Aniket Jain
Date of Birth: 14 August 1995
Age: 31
Height: 5 ft 9 in
Marital Status: Never married
Mother Tongue: Marathi
Native Place: Kolhapur
Current Location: Pune

EDUCATION & CAREER
Education: MBBS (2018), MD, General Medicine (2022)
Occupation: Consultant physician at a private hospital in Pune
Annual Income: ₹24 lakh per annum

RELIGION & LIFESTYLE
Religion: Jain (Digambar)
Food: Jain food. Follows chauvihar when his shifts allow.
Practice: Goes to the Jain mandir in Kolhapur with the family on
festivals and observes Das Lakshan Parva.

BIRTH DETAILS
Time of Birth: 6:40 am
Place of Birth: Kolhapur
Rashi: Tula

FAMILY DETAILS
Father: Sunil Jain, retired executive engineer, state electricity board
Mother: Vaishali Jain, teaches at a primary school in Kolhapur
Siblings: One elder sister, married, lives in Belagavi
Family Background: Parents live in Kolhapur. Aniket visits most months.

ABOUT ANIKET
Aniket works in the general medicine department of a hospital in Pune,
where he has been a consultant since 2023. His shifts are long, and on
his days off he likes to cycle and cook for whoever is around. He has
always been the one in the family who remembers everyone's birthdays.
He plans to settle in Pune.

PARTNER PREFERENCES
Age: 26 to 31
Education: Graduate or above; a medical background is not a condition
Religion: Jain; Digambar preferred, open to Shwetambar
Food: Vegetarian. Should be comfortable with Jain food at home.
Location: Should be comfortable living in Pune

CONTACT
Phone: 94XXXXXX36 (father, Sunil Jain)
Email: sunil.jain.family@example.com

"When his shifts allow" is the kind of detail that makes a food line believable. A family reading it learns two things at once: he takes chauvihar seriously, and he works nights. "A medical background is not a condition" answers a question many families would otherwise ask when they see that he's a doctor.

The marriage biodata format for a boy covers the questions men tend to get pressed on, such as income, property and where you'll live after marriage.

Using the format in Word

1. Copy one of the formats above and paste it into a blank Word or Google Docs file.
2. Make the section headings bold, and use one plain font for the whole page.
3. Delete any line that doesn't apply to you, rather than leaving it blank.
4. Save it as a PDF before you send it, so it looks the same on every phone. In Word, that's File, then Save As, then PDF. In Google Docs, it's File, then Download, then PDF.

Before it goes out, how to share a marriage biodata covers the choice between a file and a link, and what to write in the message that goes with it.

What to leave off

• Dowry, in any wording. That includes lines about gold, or about what the family "will give". Demanding dowry is an offence under section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.
• Your home address. A city or a locality is enough. The family details guide explains how quickly a locality, your parents' names and an employer add up to a findable house.
• A long list of relatives. Some families add one line for the mother's side, the mosal. The family details guide has a section on lines like this, and when to skip them.

Common mistakes

"Jain food" when you eat onion outside. The other family will plan around what's written. Write the line that matches how you eat.

"Terapanthi" with no tradition before it. Write "Shwetambar Terapanthi" or "Digambar Terapanthi", so nobody has to guess.

Adjectives in place of facts. "Religious, well-settled, from a good Jain family" turns up on biodata after biodata, which is exactly why it tells nobody anything. One line about what you actually do tells them more.

"Jain only" when you mean "Jain preferred". Readers treat what's written as a requirement. If it's a preference, say so.

Horoscope rows nobody will read. If your family doesn't compare horoscopes, delete the rows. Don't fill them in because the format had them, and don't leave them with "N/A".

Making it on Marriage Profile

On Marriage Profile, you pick your religion from a dropdown in the Astrology & Culture step, and Jain is one of the options. Food preference is a dropdown too, with a "Jain Vegetarian" choice. Both appear with your personal details on the biodata and in its PDF, not under the horoscope rows.

The food dropdown takes one answer, so a line like "Jain food at home; vegetarian outside" or "follows chauvihar" belongs in your About Me. There's no field for sect either, so write it into About Me or the family description.

Gotra, rashi, nakshatra and manglik status are all optional, and so is caste. Anything you leave blank doesn't appear on the biodata or in its PDF. If every birth detail is empty, the Astrology section disappears entirely, heading and all. One thing to know: a date of birth, if you add one, appears under a heading called Astrology even when there's no horoscope. Age has its own field, so you can leave the date of birth out.

A profile photo is required before you can publish. If you'd rather the photo didn't travel freely, make the biodata private with a view password, and give that password only to the families you choose. Password protection is part of the paid plans.

The biodata can be read in English, Hindi, Marathi or Gujarati from the same link, and "Jain Vegetarian" reads correctly in each. So if grandparents in Ahmedabad would rather read Gujarati, they can. Kannada and Tamil aren't among the languages, so for a family that reads one of those, the text formats above are the better place to start. The template gallery shows how the same details look in eight different designs.