Jainism

Author(s): N R Guseva
Publisher: Sindu Publications P L

Page 85

THE STRUCTURE OF JAIN COMMUNITY 71
rature, a numberless subsects and castes arose mainly in the medieval period, commencing from the 2nd half of the 1st millennium. It is apparent that the historical process of settlement of the Jains in India, conversion of individual groups of population and also the process of adoption of the caste system by the Jain community was reflected in the rise of such petty subgroups in that community.
This idea is confirmed by the fact that the Jain tradition preserves the names of tens of preachers, who supposedly formed those groups and moreover, interpreted canon in various ways and prescribed different religious practices to their groups.
But the makers of the religious canons of Jainism, in no way expressed their own attitudes to castes and did not introduce any prohibitions or prescriptions in this connection.
Some of the castes of Jains are extremely small in number. Thus amongst the Shvetambaras, almost no caste (excluding the
strong castes) has more than 500 members. Amongst both the sects, there are some castes which consist of 10-12 persons each.
Notwithstanding the fact that not all the caste institutions were adopted by the Jains, the ideas about higher and lower position of this or that caste exists all the same. Thus many castes of the Jains are divided into two groups—visa and dasa. Scholars are unable to explain the origin of these groups, but it is certain that these groups are endogamous and that the position of the latter group is lower than that of the former. The members of the latter group are not even allowed to enter the temples in some places, even though untouchability practically does not exist amongst Jains.
Marriages of widows are allowed amongst the castes of visa group, while amongst the castes of dasa group, such marriages are prohibited. It is possible to assume that the dasa caste goes back genetically to those ancient groups of Jains which had their origin in the non-Aryan people, while visas have their origin in the groups of Jain-Aryans, which were formed much later.
It is characteristic that marriages of members of visa castes with those of the dasa castes are prohibited, while marriages
4. V. A. Sangave, op. cit., pp. 75-76. 5. Ibid., p. 91.