________________
354 only to a few outside the circle of Oriental scholars. I would refer those who are anxious to study this question to the learned introductions by Professor Jacobi to vols. xxii. and xlv. of the Sacred Books of the East Series.
At this stage I am bound to admire the faculty of observation which those of you who have lived in India had exercised in reference to the strange habits and customs of the people. For instance, Sir Lepal Griffin alludes to certain Jains who cover their faces with white cloths to prevent the possibility of an insect entering into their mouths, and so inadvertently destroying life. Sir Roland Wilson, when visiting the Jain temple Ahmedabad, was struck with the fact that Jains asked him to take off his boots, buf that instead he was offered a pair of slippers; also that there were priestesses in the temple taking part in the prayers. Mr. Coldstream observed the fact that in the Punjab Jains hesitated to eat vegetables of red colour. The Jains referred to by Sir Lepel are a new sect, which came into existence only 200 years ago. They are known as Dhundhias (Sthanakvasi). Their habits and life are extemely unclean. The older Jains teach that the constant covering of the mouth and nose with cloth makes the breath so poisonous that it destroys more life than open breathing would do; also that uncleanliness generates and destroys more annimalculæ than
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
