The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Part 13

[_Bibliography: The Jainas_, by Dr. J.G. Buhler and J. Burgess, London, 1903; _The Religions of India_, Professor E.W. Hopkins; _The Religions of India_, Professor A. Barth; _Punjab Census Report_ (1891), Sir E.D. Maclagan; article on Jainism in Dr. Hastings'

_Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.]

List of Paragraphs

1. _Numbers and distribution_.

2. _The Jain religion. Its connection with Buddhism_.

3. _The Jain tenets. The Tirthakars_.

4. _The transmigration of souls_.

5. _Strict rules against taking life_.

6. _Jain sects_.

7. _Jain ascetics_.

8. _Jain subcastes of Banias_.

9. _Rules and customs of the laity_.

10. _Connection with Hinduism_.

11. _Temples and car festival_.

12. _Images of the Tirthakars_.

13. _Religious observances_.

14. _Tenderness for animal life_.

15. _Social condition of the Jains_.

1. Numbers and distribution.

_Jain_.--The total number of Jains in the Central Provinces in 1911 was 71,000 persons. They nearly all belong to the Bania caste, and are engaged in moneylending and trade like other Banias. They reside princ.i.p.ally in the Vindhyan Districts, Saugor, Damoh and Jubbulpore, and in the princ.i.p.al towns of the Nagpur country and Berar.

2. The Jain religion. Its connection with Buddhism.

The Jain tenets present marked features of resemblance to Buddhism, and it was for some time held that Jainism was merely a later offshoot from that religion. The more generally accepted view now, however, is that the Jina or prophet of the Jains was a real historical personage, who lived in the sixth century B.C., being a contemporary of Gautama, the Buddha. Vardhamana, as he was commonly called, is said to have been the younger son of a small chieftain in the province of Videha or Tirhut. Like Sakya-Muni the Buddha or enlightened, Vardhamana became an ascetic, and after twelve years of a wandering life he appeared as a prophet, proclaiming a modification of the doctrine of his own teacher Parsva or Parasnath. From this time he was known as Mahavira, the great hero, the same name which in its familiar form of Mahabir is applied to the G.o.d Hanuman. The t.i.tle of Jina or victorious, from which the Jains take their name, was subsequently conferred on him, his sect at its first inst.i.tution being called Nirgrantha or ascetic. There are very close resemblances in the traditions concerning the lives of Vardhamana and Gautama or Buddha. Both were of royal birth; the same names recur among their relatives and disciples; and they lived and preached in the same part of the country, Bihar and Tirhut. [267] Vardhamana is said to have died during Buddha's lifetime, the date of the latter's death being about 480 B.C. [268]

Their doctrines also, with some important differences, present, on the whole, a close resemblance. Like the Buddhists, the Jains claim to have been patronised by the Maurya princes. While Asoka was mainly instrumental in the propagation of Buddhism over India, his grandfather Chandragupta is stated to have been a Jain, and his grandson Sampadi also figures in Jain tradition. A district which is a holy land for one is almost always a holy land for the other, and their sacred places adjoin each other in Bihar, in the peninsula of Gujarat, on Mount Abu in Rajputana and elsewhere. [269] The earliest of the Jain books belongs to the sixth century A.D., the existence of the Nirgrantha sect in Buddha's lifetime being proved by the Cingalese books of the Buddhists, and by references to it in the inscriptions of Asoka and others. [270] While then M. Barth's theory that Jainism was simply a later sect of Buddhism has been discarded by subsequent scholars, it seems likely that several of the details of Vardhamana's life now recorded in the Jain books are not really authentic, but were taken from that of Buddha with necessary alterations, when the true facts about their own prophet had been irrevocably lost.

3. The Jain tenets. The Tirthakars.

Like the Buddhists, the Jains recognise no creator of the world, and suppose it to have existed from eternity. Similarly, they had originally no real G.o.d, but the Jina or victor, like the Buddha or Enlightened One, was held to have been an ordinary mortal man, who by his own power had attained to omniscience and freedom, and out of pity for suffering mankind preached and declared the way of salvation which he had found. [271] This doctrine, however, was too abstruse for the people, and in both cases the prophet himself gradually came to be deified. Further, in order perhaps to furnish objects of wors.h.i.+p less distinctively human and to whom a larger share of the attributes of deity could be imputed, in both religions a succession of mythical predecessors of the prophet was gradually brought into existence. The Buddhists recognise twenty-five Buddhas or divine prophets, who appeared at long epochs of time and taught the same system one after another; and the Jains have twenty-four Tirthakars or Tirthankars, who similarly taught their religion. Of these only Vardhamana, its real founder, who was the twenty-fourth, and possibly Parsva or Parasnath, the twenty-third and the founder's preceptor, are or may be historical. The other twenty-two Tirthakars are purely mythical. The first, Rishaba, was born more than 100 billion years ago, as the son of a king of Ajodhya; he lived more than 8 million years, and was 500 bow-lengths in height. He therefore is as superhuman as any G.o.d, and his date takes us back almost to eternity. The others succeeded each other at shorter intervals of time, and show a progressive decline in stature and length of life. The images of the Tirthakars are wors.h.i.+pped in the Jain temples like those of the Buddhas in Buddhist temples. As with Buddhism also, the main feature of Jain belief is the transmigration of souls, and each successive incarnation depends on the sum of good and bad actions or _karman_ in the previous life. They hold also the primitive animistic doctrine that souls exist not only in animals and plants but in stones, lumps of earth, drops of water, fire and wind, and the human soul may pa.s.s even into these if its sins condemn it to such a fate. [272]

4. The transmigration of souls.

The aim which Jainism, like Buddhism, sets before its disciples is the escape from the endless round of successive existences, known as Samsara, through the extinction of the _karman_ or sum of actions. This is attained by complete subjection of the pa.s.sions and destruction of all desires and appet.i.tes of the body and mind, that is, by the most rigid asceticism, as well as by observing all the moral rules prescribed by the religion. It was the Jina or prophet who showed this way of escape, and hence he is called Tirthakar or 'The Finder of the Ford,' through the ocean of existence. [273]

But Jainism differs from Buddhism in that it holds that the soul, when finally emanc.i.p.ated, reaches a heaven and there continues for ever a separate intellectual existence, and is not absorbed into Nirvana or a state of blessed nothingness.

5. Strict rules against taking life.

The moral precepts of the Jains are of the same type as those of Buddhism and Vaishnavite Hinduism, but of an excessive rigidity, at any rate in the case of the Yatis or Jatis, the ascetics. They promise not to hurt, not to speak untruths, to appropriate nothing to themselves without permission, to preserve chast.i.ty and to practise self-sacrifice. But these simple rules are extraordinarily expanded on the part of the Jains. Thus, concerning the oath not to hurt, on which the Jains lay most emphasis: it prohibits not only the intentional killing or injuring of living beings, plants or the souls existing in dead matter, but requires also the utmost carefulness in the whole manner of life, and a watchfulness also over all movements and functions of the body by which anything living might be hurt. It demands, finally, strict watch over the heart and tongue, and the avoidance of all thoughts and words which might lead to disputes and quarrels, and thereby do harm. In like manner the rule of sacrifice requires not only that the ascetic should have no houses or possessions, but he must also acquire a complete unconcern towards agreeable or disagreeable impressions, and destroy all feelings of attachment to anything living or dead. [274] Similarly, death by voluntary starvation is prescribed for those ascetics who have reached the Kewalin or brightest stage of knowledge, as the means of entering their heaven. Owing to the late date of the Jain scriptures, any or all of its doctrines may have been adopted from Buddhism between the commencement of the two religions and the time when they were compiled. The Jains did not definitely abolish caste, and hence escaped the persecution to which Buddhism was subjected during the period of its decline from the fifth or sixth century A.D. On account of this trouble many Buddhists became Jains, and hence a further fusion of the doctrines of the rival sects may have ensued. The Digambara sect of Jains agree with the Buddhists in holding that women cannot attain Nirvana or heaven, while the Swetambara sect say that they can, and also admit women as nuns into the ascetic order. The Jain scripture, the Yogashastra, speaks of women as the lamps that burn on the road that leads to the gates of h.e.l.l.

6. Jain sects.

The Jains are divided into the above two princ.i.p.al sects, the Digambara and the Swetambara. The Digambara are the more numerous and the stricter sect. According to their tenets death by voluntary starvation is necessary for ascetics who would attain heaven, though of course the rule is not now observed. The name Digambara signifies sky-clad, and Swetambara white-clad. Formerly the Digambara ascetics went naked, and were the gymnosophists of the Greek writers, but now they take off their clothes, if at all, only at meals. The theory of the origin of the two sects is that Parasnath, the twenty-third Tirthakar, wore clothes, while Mahavira the twenty-fourth did not, and the two sects follow their respective examples. The Digambaras now wear ochre-coloured cloth, and the Swetambaras white. The princ.i.p.al difference at present is that the images in Digambara temples are naked and bare, while those of the Swetambaras are clothed, presumably in white, and also decorated with jewellery and ornaments. The Digambara ascetics may not use vessels for cooking or holding their food, but must take it in their hands from their disciples and eat it thus; while the Swetambara ascetics may use vessels. The Digambara, however, do not consider the straining-cloth, brush, and gauze before the mouth essential to the character of an ascetic, while the Swetambara insist on them. There is in the Central Provinces another small sect called Channagri or Samaiya, and known elsewhere as Dhundia. These do not put images in their temples at all, but only copies of the Jain sacred books, and pay reverence to them. They will, however, wors.h.i.+p in regular Jain temples at places where there are none of their own.

7. Jain ascetics.

The initiation of a Yati or Jati, a Jain ascetic, is thus described: It is frequent for Banias who have no children to vow that their first-born shall be a Yati. Such a boy serves a novitiate with a _guru_ or preceptor, and performs for him domestic offices; and when he is old enough and has made progress in his studies he is initiated. For this purpose the novice is carried out of the tower with music and rejoicing in procession, followed by a crowd of Sravakas or Jain laymen, and taken underneath the banyan, or any other tree the juice of which is milky. His hair is pulled out at the roots with five pulls; camphor, musk, sandal, saffron and sugar are applied to the scalp; and he is then placed before his _guru,_ stripped of his clothes and with his hands joined. A text is whispered in his ear by the _guru_, and he is invested with the clothes peculiar to Yatis; two cloths, a blanket and a staff; a plate for his victuals and a cloth to tie them up in; a piece of gauze to tie over his mouth to prevent the entry of insects; a cloth through which to strain his drinking-water to the same end; and a broom made of cotton threads or peac.o.c.k feathers to sweep the ground before him as he walks, so that his foot may not crush any living thing. The duty of the Yati is to read and explain the sacred books to the Sravakas morning and evening, such functions being known as Sandhya. His food consists of all kinds of grain, vegetables and fruit produced above the earth; but no roots such as yams or onions. Milk and _ghi_ are permitted, but b.u.t.ter and honey are prohibited. Some strict Yatis drink no water but what has been first boiled, lest they should inadvertently destroy any insect, it being less criminal to boil them than to destroy them in the drinker's stomach. A Yati having renounced the world and all civil duties can have no family, nor does he perform any office of mourning or rejoicing. [275] A Yati was directed to travel about begging and preaching for eight months in the year, and during the four rainy months to reside in some village or town and observe a fast. The rules of conduct to be observed by him were extremely strict, as has already been seen. Those who observed them successfully were believed to acquire miraculous powers. He who was a Siddh or victor, and had overcome his Karma or the sum of his human actions and affections, could read the thoughts of others and foretell the future. He who had attained Kewalgyan, or the state of perfect knowledge which preceded the emanc.i.p.ation of the soul and its absorption into paradise, was a G.o.d on earth, and even the G.o.ds wors.h.i.+pped him. Wherever he went all plants burst into flower and brought forth fruit, whether it was their season or not. In his presence no animal bore enmity to another or tried to kill it, but all animals lived peaceably together. This was the state attained to by each Tirthakar during his last sojourn on earth. The number of Jain ascetics seems now to be less than formerly and they are not often met with, at least in the Central Provinces. They do not usually perform the function of temple priest.

8. Jain subcastes of Banias.

Practically all the Jains in the Central Provinces are of the Bania caste. There is a small subcaste of Jain Kalars, but these are said to have gone back to Hinduism. [276] Of the Bania subcastes who are Jains the princ.i.p.al are the Parwar, Golapurab, Oswal and Saitwal. Saraogi, the name for a Jain layman, and Charnagar, a sect of Jains, are also returned as subcastes of Jain Banias. Other important subcastes of Banias, as the Agarwal and Maheshri, have a Jain section. Nearly all Banias belong to the Digambara sect, but the Oswal are Swetambaras. They are said to have been originally Rajputs of Os or Osnagar in Rajputana, and while they were yet Rajputs a Swetambara ascetic sucked the poison from the wound of an Oswal boy whom a snake had bitten, and this induced the community to join the Swetambara sect of the Jains. [277]

9. Rules and customs of the laity.

The Jain laity are known as Shrawak or Saraogi, learners. There is comparatively little to distinguish them from their Hindu brethren. Their princ.i.p.al tenet is to avoid the destruction of all animal, including insect life, but the Hindu Banias are practically all Vaishnavas, and observe almost the same tenderness for animal life as the Jains. The Jains are distinguished by their separate temples and method of wors.h.i.+p, and they do not recognise the authority of the Vedas nor revere the _lingam_ of Siva. Consequently they do not use the Hindu sacred texts at their weddings, but repeat some verses from their own scriptures. These weddings are said to be more in the nature of a civil contract than of a religious ceremony. The bride and bridegroom walk seven times round the sacred post and are then seated on a platform and promise to observe certain rules of conduct towards each other and avoid offences. It is said that formerly a Jain bride was locked up in a temple for the first night and considered to be the bride of the G.o.d. But as scandals arose from this custom, she is now only locked up for a minute or two and then let out again. Jain boys are invested with the sacred thread on the occasion of their weddings or at twenty-one or twenty-two if they are still unmarried at that age. The thread is renewed annually on the day before the full moon of Bhadon (August), after a ten days' fast in honour of Anant Nath Tirthakar. The thread is made by the Jain priests of tree cotton and has three knots. At their funerals the Jains do not shave the moustaches off as a rule, and they never shave the _choti_ or scalp-lock, which they wear like Hindus. They give a feast to the caste-fellows and distribute money in charity, but do not perform the Hindu _shraddh_ or offering of sacrificial cakes to the dead. The Agarwal and Khandelwal Jains, however, invoke the spirits of their ancestors at weddings. Traces of an old hostility between Jains and Hindus survive in the Hindu saying that one should not take refuge in a Jain temple, even to escape from a mad elephant; and in the rule that a Jain beggar will not take alms from a Hindu unless he can perform some service in return, though it may not equal the value of the alms.

10. Connection with Hinduism.

In other respects the Jains closely resemble the Hindus. Brahmans are often employed at their weddings, they reverence the cow, wors.h.i.+p sometimes in Hindu temples, go on pilgrimages to the Hindu sacred places, and follow the Hindu law of inheritance. The Agarwal Bania Jains and Hindus will take food cooked with water together and intermarry in Bundelkhand, although it is doubtful whether they do this in the Central Provinces. In such a case each party pays a fine to the Jain temple fund. In respect of caste distinctions the Jains are now scarcely less strict than the Hindus. The different Jain subcastes of Banias coming from Bundelkhand will take food together as a rule, and those from Marwar will do the same. The Khandelwal and Oswal Jain Banias will take food cooked with water together when it has been cooked by an old woman past the age of child-bearing, but not that cooked by a young woman. The spread of education has awakened an increased interest among the Jains in their scriptures and the tenets of their religion, and it is quite likely that the tendency to conform to Hinduism in caste matters and ceremonies may receive a check on this account. [278]