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JAINA ASCETICS.
39
In the Bombay Gazetteer* it is stated that the Dhundhiā priests do not beg; this however my Dhundhiã (i. e. Sthanakavāsi ) friends assure me is unfortunately not the case.
The householders who are begged from feel obliged to. give, and the support of so large a body of mendicants is felt as a very severe tax by a great number of thrifty and hard working Hindus and Jaina. A Brāhman gentleman, who though of good position had to strain every nerve to make both ends meet, told me that it cost him at least a rupee a week to satisfy all the religious mendicants who begged from him, a sum equivalent to four days' labour.
* Vol. ix. Part I. p. 106.
