________________
+
JAIN EMBLEMS.
CHAPTER X. Jainism.
阍
Jainism and Buddhism-Mahavira-Jain beliefs-Temples at PalitanaMount Abu-Parasnath-The Yatis.
THE HE Jains are at the present day an important body of religionists in India, more for their wealth and influence than their numbers. It is said that half the mercantile transactions of India pass through their hands as merchants and bankers, largely in the north and west of India, and in smaller numbers throughout the Jainism and southern peninsula. Till comparatively reBuddhism. cently they were believed to be quite a modern sect of Hindus, at any rate not much more than a thousand years old. But the careful researches of several eminent scholars have led them to the belief
238