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RELIGIOUS SECTS
and these again appear to comprehend a variety of subdivisions: some of the Gachchas comprehend a portion of Sri Vaishńavas, between which sect and the Jains in Upper India a singular alliance seems sometimes to prevail.
The condition of Jaina worship may be inferred from the above notices of its temples. Its professors are to be found in every province of Hindustan, collected chiefly in towns, where, as merchants and bankers, they usually form a very opulent portion of the community. In Calcutta there are said to be five hundred families; but they are much more numerous at Murshidabád. In Behár they have been estimated at between three and four hundred families. They are in some numbers in Benares, but become more numerous ascending the Doáb. It is, however, to the westward that they abound: the provinces of Mewar and Márwár being apparently the cradle of the sect'. They are also numerous in Guzerat, in the upper part of the Malabar coast, and are scattered throughout
Some of these are well known, but many of the others are never met with. The list was furnished by a respectable Yatibut how far it is throughout genuine, I cannot pretend to say. It omits sereral Gachchas of celebrity, particularly the Chandra and Khartara.
According to Major Ton, the Pontiff of the Kharatra Gachcha has eleven thousand clerical disciples scattered over India, and the single community of Ośwál numbers one hundred thousand families. In the West of India, the officers of the state and revenue, the bankers, the civil magistrates, and the heads of corporations, are mostly Jains.- Trans. R. As. Soc., Vol. II, 1, p. 263.
