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BOOKS OF GENERAL REFERENCE
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owing to their importance as bankers and landholders. The Kayahas, settled at Azimganj, belong almost exclusively to this sect. The great banking family of Jagat Seth was originally Jains. Some Jain families migrated to Murshidabad from Bikanir in the eighteenth century. On the Banks of the Bhagirathi they have their temples ; three of the temples at Paraśnāth have been constructed at the expense of the Murshidabad Jains.
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Hissar District. Pt. A. Lahore, 1915. (PDG, II A). Pp. 63-4. Jain sects: Mandirpanthis, Dhundiapanthis:
P. 80. Nearly all the members of the Jain sect are to be found in one or other of the divisions of the Baniās. All the Osvāls, with very few exceptions, appear to be Jains of the Svetambara sect. Of the Agarvals a few are Jains.
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PATE, H. R. Tinnevally. Vol: 1. Madras, 1917. (MDG). Pp. 100-101. No Jains or Buddhists to be found in the district.
The Jain and Buddhist influence in Southern India began to disappear from about the beginning of the seventh century A.D.
The ceremony known as kaluvettal (lit. impaling) is associated with the Jains of old and is held to commemorate the savage treatment they received at the hands of their Saiva persecutors.
Widespread influence of Jainism and Buddhism in the district can be traced from stone remains found in different places. There are monuments which are attributed either to the Buddhists or the Jains.
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LISTER, E. Hazaribagh. Patna, 1917. (BODG).
Pp. 205-209. The twenty-third Tirthankara Pārsvanātha-The last Tirthankara Mahāvīra--Jain sects : (i) Digambaras, (2) Svetāmbaras -Quarrel about Pāraśnāth-Buildings-The temple on Paraśnāth hill -The shrines on Päraśnāth hill-Madhuban, the administrative head-quarters of the two sects of the Jains..