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sripuja or spiritual guru, whose duty is to visit his flock every year in all the places over which his functions extend.

The Svrarakas, or laymen, conform to the usual customs of society. The two principal sects of the Jainas are the Swetambaras and the Digambaras. Of these there are also divisions; the Bispankhti and the Tirapankhti, or the thirteen or twenty ways to heaven; and the Duriya.

The pilgrims of the Bispankhti sect worship with flowers and fruits, and offer different kinds of sweetmeats; but the people of the Tirapankhti division present no flowers nor fruits. They offer sacred rice called Akshau, sandal, cloves, nutmegs, &c.

These things they place before the images, after which, standing before the temple, they leap and dance to their own songs, the naulet khana (or band of drums and trumpets) resounding all the time, and passages of their sacred volumes being read by their priest. When they advance to present their offerings, they tie a cloth over their mouth.-Oriental Magazine.

The Digambaras wear no clothes, and the Swetambaras hold them in great contempt in consequence of their extravagant practices.

The Duriyas are said to consider themselves as having obtained divinity, and therefore as exempted from the worship of any god. They are ascetics of the most extravagant degree of mortification, who wander about thoughtless of all worldly concerns. The Jainas, it is asserted, now acknowledge in some places the distinctions of caste; but this is considered to be a modern innovation.

The names of the twenty-four Jaina Tirt'hankaras who are placed in their temples are Rishabha (Deva), Ajita, Sambhava, Abhinandana, Sumati, Padamaprabha, Suparsiva, Chandra Prabha, Pushpadanta, Sitala, Sreyamsa, Vasapujia, Vimala, Ananta, D'harma, Santhí, Kunthu, Arhamali, Mumsuvrata, Nami, Nemi, Parswanatha, and Verdhyamana. To each of these names the title of Deva or Tirt'hankara is added. The founder, with Par'swanat'ha and Verdhyamana, are those now most frequently worshipped. According to Dr. Buchanan the devotions of the Jainas are usually addressed to representations of their feet. Par'swanat'ha had, like Vishnu, many forms or appearances on earth.

The Jaina temples and caves exhibit some of the finest specimens of architecture and sculpture in India. The ancient and celebrated caves of Elephanta and Ellora have, by some, been thought to be of Jaina or Buddha workmanship, and by others of one or both and the Brahmans. Where there is scarcely any thing beyond conjecture to guide us, it may, perhaps, be as safe to suppose that these stupendous and magnificent excavations were formed before the first great schism of the Hindu race. The caves of Karli, Kanara, Nasuk, Adjunta, &c. appear to have been of later formation, and are generally acknowledged to have been the works of either the Buddhas or Jainas. These temples are highly enriched with sculptures, and are variously formed. (See Temples.)

In an essay on the Jainas* from the pen of the late Lieut. Col. Delamain, from which the following is abstracted, it is stated the Srawacs (or Svrarakas), or laity of the Jains, appear to be the only considerable remnant in India of the earlier Jains, or Arhatas.

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The Sráwac Yatis have fashioned much of history and tradition to suit their particular purpose, rendering it doubtful what is their invention and what original.

"The Sráwacs seem to have thriven, and survived, in useful occupation, the wreck of their ancient faith. Some, probably all, the Jain temples in Mandu and the neighbourhood were built at the expense of the Sráwacs. Besides the Jain distinction of Digambar and Swétámbar, the Sráwacs more or less differ, as Oswáls, Vaisyapariwárs, Hómars, Khaderwars, &c., and through connecting sects coalesce with the orthodox Hindus.

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Some, I understand (as the Oswáls), eat at night, contrary to the Jain usage; and so much do the Sráwacs differ among themselves, that several sects will not intermarry.

"The Swetambars appear more particularly devoted to Rishabha, the first Jina, and to have been the naked wood hermits of former days.

"The eternal existence of the world, including gods and men, is generally understood to form a part of the Jain system, and is adhered to in a great measure by the Sráwacs, though of man they entertain a notion that fourteen * Published in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society.

WClerk lith 41. Dean St. Soho.

Bharani, from an ancient Jaina Sculpture 3ft sin by 2ft6 in
Published by Parbury, Allen & Co London 1832.

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pairs, from a former seed, in the re-production of worlds sprang into existence from a cave in a mountain. They were of a very diminutive size, being only one cubit and a half high. These pairs, male and female, which were called Yugaliyas, produced Nabhi Rájá and Mora Déva. These Yugaliyas appear, however, to have thriven amazingly, for Rishabha Déva, their first Tirt'hankara, attained a height of two thousand cubits.

However nearly the Jainas were allied to the Hindu faith originally, they cannot now with propriety be admitted of that class, so long as they deny the supremacy of their gods and védas, as at present at least accepted and understood by the orthodox party. Mr. Colebrooke calls them a sect of Hindus, and the Hindus consider them a separation from their faith.

Even after having got the universe ready made, the Jainas appear incapable of arranging consistently its parts and movements; and the pantheon of the Hindus, which they still acknowledge, would seem rather a useless piece of machinery, where the divine essence existing in their deified saints is the supreme, if not the sole object of their adoration. An original system would scarcely have introduced immortal gods, to make them of such secondary consideration. Such, however, having once been part of their system, would, though superseded by saint-worship, still remain in some degree essential appendages to the minor purposes of ceremony and super

stition.

I conclude the present number of Tirthankaras (twenty-four) to be fashioned after the twenty-four greater avatars of the Hindus. The most important are Rishabha, the first Tirt'hankara, and Párswanat’ha, the twenty-third. The colossal stature attributed to these Tirt'hankaras, and to all their celebrated men, whether saints or princes, in their books* and statues, shews how necessarily connected in their estimation were mental powers with personal size.

Adinát❜ha, or Adis wara, another term for the deity, if we may so term their idea of purified matter, is usually applied to Rishabha Déva, who is allowed by the Jainas, Sráwacs, &c. of every description, to be their first

The Jaina books are said to contain ten thousand volumes, the principal parts of which are supposed to be at Patun, in Rajpootana, and at Jusselmere, N.W. of Cambay.

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