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Jain lay community must have been a factor of the greatest importance to the church cluring the whole of its existence, and may have been one of the main reasons why the Jain religion continued to keep its position in India, whilst its far more important rival, Buddhism, was entirely swept away by the Brahman reaction. Tlie inflexible conservatism of the small Jain community in holding fast to its original institutions and cloctrine has probably been the chief cause of its survival during periods of severe affliction ; for, as Professor Jacobi has pointed out, long ago, there can be little doubt, that the most important doctrines of the Jain religion have remained practically waltered since the first great seperation in the time of Bhadrabahu about 300 B. C...
It inust be confessed from this that an absolute refusal to admit changes has been the strongest safeguard of the Jains.
But the singularly primitive idea that even lifeless matter is animated ly a soul, and the austerest perhaps of all known cocles of disciplinary rules seem scarcely congruent with modern innovations.” (P. 169).
(viii) “We ought also to remember botlı that the Jain religion is certainly older than
