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Jaina Community--A Social Survey
Fifthly, Jaina religion as such does not recognise the castes in the Jaina community. They were not found in the Jaina community from the very beginning. They are comparatively of a recent growth. If they were existing, they would have been mentioned by the Jaina Achāryas in their biographical or other works. But it is a fact that no mention is made of them by the Jaina Acharyas. The Jaina books do not give more importance to them than to consider them as a social practice. The castes are therefore not ancient at all; and it is most likely that they might have been formed during the last one thousand years.35 This is the view of Digambara Jainas. In response to a question whether the castes following the Jaina religion are according to the Jaina sacred books or not, when they were formed, Svāmi Atmananda, a Śvetāmbara Jaina ascetic, declared that the Jaina castes were organised by the Jaina Acharyas of their own accord and that they were not found formerly at all.36 The Sthanakavāsi Jaina ascetics also made it clear that the caste-system was not sanctioned by the Jaina religion.37 In this connection Mrs. N. R. Guseva asserts that “judging from the traditions which have come down from record of mouth and the works of Jaina literature, a numberless subsects and castes. arose mainly in the medieval period, commencing from the second half of the 1st millennium.”38
Sitxhly, it is interesting to note that only a few castes like Osavala, Poravada, Humbada, Narasimgapura and Nemā are common to both the Digambaras and the Śvetambaras. There are as many as 87 castes and sub-castes recorded among the Digambaras39 and 38 among the Svetambaras40. When a small community is divided into several sections, naturally the latter are composed of a very few members. According to the Digambara Jaina Directory, out of 87 castes there are 41 whose population is less than 500. 12 whose population is between 500 and 1000, 20 whose population is between 1000 and 5000 and there are only 15 castes whose population is more than 5000. There are some castes whose population is merely 2, 3, 4, 8, 16, 20, etc. The same is the case with the Svetāmbaras. Excepting the castes of Śrīmāla, Osavāla, Poravāda, Nīmā, Bhāvasāra and Bhojaka, all the remaining castes have a population less than 500 in Gujaratha, where the Svetām
baras are mainly concentrated, and there are several castes whose · population is merely 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 15, 16, 21, etc. The names
