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which a nun is wound has the efficacy of giving children to childless women. 141 In any case, there are unmistakable instances of nuns performing the act of Sallékhana no less than those of monks, and there is also in an inscription at Śravana Belgola, a reference to the presence of nuns who attended the ceremony of Panca-kalyāņa or the five auspicious things ( Birth, Anointment, Renunciation, Enlightenment and Liberation of Jina or Gommața ) together with the monks. 142 Thurston says, there is still a sisterhood of nuns in South Arcot who shave and wear white cloth. These might be Digambara as he says that all Jainas there are Digambara. And what is still more interesting is that he speaks of a class of Arcakas or priests called Annam or Annuvriti : "a kind of monk who is allowed to marry but has special rules of conduct,” 143
Lastly, something must be said about the various pontificates of Karnāțaka, which also added to the varieties of codes and practices, a geographical principle, dividing the present day Jainas into so many bewildering sections and sub-sections. Buchanan for instance, has observed that the Jainas of Tuļuva are in many respects different from those of Be!go!a above the ghâts. One of the differences he noted was that the former (inspite of there being Bunts among them) denied that there were Sūdras among the Jainas. 144 At present the Hindu Bunts are classed among the Sūdras; but the Jaina Bunts, because of their political status, must have classed themselves among the Kșatriyas in the past. The Amonora-Caritra referred to by Buchanan traces the origin of the Bairasu Wodeyars from Uttara-Madura, and an inscription at Kārkaļ speaks of Virapāndy of the same family as Atalant or belonging to the lunar race (of Ksatriyas ) of the family of Jinadatta. 185 Their
141 Ct, Marathi-J nāna-Kos'a (T), p. 331. 142 Ep. Car. II SB 268, trans., p. 10 nl; cf. Ibid. Introd., pp. 69-70, 89. 143 Cf. Thurston, op, cit., pp, 30-39. • 144 Buchanan, op. cit. III, p. 412. 145 Ibid., p. 81; Hultzsch, Jain Cologgi in South India, Ep. Ind. VII,
pp. 109-11, LL 9-11 of text; Rico, Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions, pp. 138-39
