Book Title: Jain Journal 1974 04 Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication Publisher: Jain Bhawan PublicationPage 17
________________ The Jaina DOUGLAS M. THRONTON 'He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.' -St. John, xii. 25. The Jaina of To-day The Jaina, who are the most numerous and influential sect of nonconformists to the Brahmanical system of Hinduism, now number about 1,400,000 in India. They are found in every province of Upper Hindustan, in the cities along the Ganges, and in Calcutta. But they are more numerous to the west, e.g., in Rajputana, Gujarat, and in the upper part of the Malabar coast. They are also scattered throughout the whole of Southern India. Being mostly traders, merchants, or bankers, they live in the towns, and the wealth of many of their community gives them a social importance greater than would result from their mere numbers. It is even said that half the mercantile transactions of India pass through their hands. Their charity is boundless; and they form the chief supporters of the beast hospitals, which the old and striking animistic tenderness for the animals has left in many of the cities of India. Discovery of their Origin Until quite recently European scholars did not admit the pretensions of the Jaina to an earlier origin than Buddhism. H. H. Wilson questioned their importance at any period earlier than twelve centuries ago.1 Weber used to regard 'the Jaina as merely one of the oldest sects of Buddhism'2; and Lassen believed that they had branched off from the Buddhists'. M. Barth, after discussion of the evidence, still thought that we must regard the Jaina ‘as a sect which took its rise in Buddhism'4. On the other hand, Oldenberg, who brings later light from the Pali texts to bear on the question, accepts the identity of the Jaina sect with the Nigantha, 'into whose midst the younger brotherhood of Buddha entered❜5. 1 Essays and Lectures on the Religion of the Hindus, by H. H. Wilson. Dr. Reinhold Rost's edition (1862), vol. i. p. 329. 2 Weber's Indische Studien, xvi. 210. 3 Lassen's Indische Alterthumskunde, iv. 763 ff. 4 Barth's Religions of India, ed. 1882, p. 151. 5 Buddha, his Life, his Doctorine, his Order, by Professor H. Oldenberg. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.orgPage Navigation
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