Jain Journal 1967 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 5

JAIN JOURNAL
most interesting fact is that the Jainas, though a small community, say, like the Parsis, do not have a lingua franca, their medium of expression and communication being the language of the locality where they reside. As to the wearing of the sacred thread, largely a privilege of the Hindu Brahmins, the practice prevails among the Digambaras but not at all among the Svetāmbaras. Another characteristic difference between the two sects, as observed by the author, is that while the Svetāmbaras make a wide use of priesthood, mostly a category of Brahmins who are non-Jainas themselves, the Digambaras largely carry on without any priesthood. And finally in the working model, the author rightly recognises that in view of the basic difference between the religious philosophy of the Jainas and that of the non-Jainas, "the Jaina way of life automatically becomes separate from other ways of life.”
Leaving aside the working model, the arrangement of the rest of the book is as follows. Chapter one gives the demographic data of the Jaina Community while chapters two and three discuss religious and social divisions respectively. The subject-matter of chapter four is marriage and position of women. Chapter five considers Jaina ethics and miscellaneous customs and manners, including their food and drink, dress and ornaments, language and literature and Jaina institutions. Chapter seven gives a retrospect, discussing the historical background, the achievements of the Jainas, the reasons of their survival, causes of decline of Jainism, present-day problems and the way out.
In the demographic survey, the most startling fact revealed is that while the population of India is increasing, the Jaina popultion, like perhaps the French in Europe, is steadily diminishing, and if the downtrend persists unchecked, it “will undoubtedly result in effacing the Jaina community from the surface of the earth, in not too distant a future." Another demographic characteristic revealed is the dominance of Jaina population in Bombay and Gujarat where muslim population is insignificant, its comparative insignificance in Uttar Pradesh where the muslim population is large and its virtual non-existence in Madras, and more significantly in Mysore where “now only the temples and colossal statues of Gommetesvara bear witness to its popularity.”
The antiquity of Jainism as a religion is still a matter of conjecture but now there is hardly any doubt that Parsva, the 23rd Tirthankara, lived in the 8th century B.C., while Mahavira was the senior contemporary of Buddha. The subsequent history of the Jaina Church is full of schisms, at least one of them occurring in 83 A.D. which gave rise to the Digambara Sect being the most significant. These two sects are