Religious Problem in India

Author(s): Annie Besant
Publisher: Theosophist Office Adyar

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THE RELIGIOUS PROBLEM IN INDIA
such is the thought that he endeavors to realise upon earth.
Now the Jainas are comparatively a small body; they only number between one and two million men; a community powerful not by its numbers, but by its purity of life, and also by the wealth of its members-merchants and traders for the most part. The four castes of the Hindūs are recognised by the Jainas, but you will now find few Brālımaņas among them; few also of the Kșhațțriyas, which caste seems wholly incompatible with the present ideas of the Jainas, thongh their Jinas are all Kshattriyas. The vast mass of them are Vaishyas-traders, merchants and manufacturers, and we find them mostly gathered in Rājaputāna, in Guzerāt, in Kathiawar; scattered indeed also in other parts, but the great Jaina communities may be said to be confined to these regions of India. Truly it was not so in the past, for we shall find presently that they spread, especially at the time of the Christian Era, as well as before it and after it, throngh the whole of Southern India ; but if we take them as they are to-day, the provinces that I mentioned may be said practically to include the mass of the Jainas.
There is one point with regard to the eastes which separates them from Hinduism. The Sannyāsī of the Jaina may come from any caste. He is not restricted, as in ordinary orthodox Hinduism, to the Brāhmaṇa caste. The Yați may come from any of the castes, and of course as a rule comes from the