Jainism in North India

Author(s): Chimanlal J Shah
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London

Page 23

INTRODUCTION form a unit by themselves, and it is in this sense that the term is here used " It is to the south of the Tapti river that the Deccan plateau proper begins. The Narbada river is the real parting of Hindustan from the Deccan (Peninsular India)." 1 And it is in this territory that nearly half the Jainas, out of the total population of about twelve lacs, reside to-day. And these Jainas, six lacs or so in number, are historically and socially, and also religiously, a definite unit by themselves, even as they are by traditions, customs and habits distinctly northern As among the Buddhists so among the Jainas, this division between North and South, though geographical in its origin, “has extended in the end to the doctrines taught, the question of the canon of scripture, and the entire body of the traditions and usages.” 2
1 Srmivasachan and Aryangar, History of India, pt. 1., p 8 . Barth, op cit, p 145
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