________________
Social Divisions in the Jaina Community
97
created by the then Bhattārakas with a view to have continuous following for them. And for this purpose restrictions on inter-dining and inter-marriage among the four castes were put on by the Bhattārakas. 141 According to another account Panchamas are the fifth or the lowest class of Jainas whom all who marry widows have to join.142 It is maintained that with a view to avoid this degrading position Pañchama Jainas joined Virasaivism and formed a group of Pañchamasālī Lingāyatas, who have a higher position among Lingāyatas. Lingāyatas belong to two main divisions, laymen and clergy. The clergy who are generally called Jangamas, are divided into two classes, the Viraktas, who are unmarried and the Gurusthalas who are married. The 31 divisions of lay Lingayatas may be arranged under three groups, (i) 4 classes of True or Pure Lingāyatas, (ii) 16 classes of Affiliated Lingayatas and (üi) 11 classes of Half Lingayatas. The four classes of Pure or Original Lingayatas are Dhulapavadas, Šilavantas, Banajigas and Pañchamasālīs. Thus we find that Pañchamasālīs were assigned a place among True Lingayatas. Moreover, in this connection it is stated that the resemblance between the Jaina and the Lingāyata rules about eating and drinking, about tenderness for life, and about the non-return of the spirits of the dead suggest that many Lingayatas represent converts from Jainism. This view finds support in the fact that the strength of the Lingayatas is in Banajiga class who were formerly chiefly Jainas, and that the Pañchamas or Pañchamasālīs, another leading branch of the Lingayatas, appear to take their name from and to represent the fifth or lowest class of Jainas, a despised community to which all widow-marrying Jainas are degraded. It was natural that Pañchamas should take to a religion that did not hold widow-marriage an offence.143
The economic condition of Pañchamas is bit better than that of either Setavālas or Chaturthas. Some Pañchamas are agricul turists no doubt, but many are patty merchants and traders dealing chiefly in jewellery, cotton, cloth and grain. Compared with other Hindu castes in the Deccan, Setavālas, Chaturthas and Pañchamas lagged behind in education, economic position and social uplift in general, and that is why they were included in the Intermediate Castes by the Bombay Government. As a class they are orderly and law-abiding and seldom appear in criminal courts. For more than a thousand years Jainism was either a State religion or enjoyed a
J...7
