Sarak Jati Aur Jain Dharm

Author(s): Tejmal Bothra
Publisher: Jain Dharm Pracharak Sabha

Page 5

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इसी तरह सन् १९०८ ई० के पुरी गजेटियर्स के पेज ८५ में भी लिखा है :
The Saraks are. an archaic Community of whom MR. Gait gives the following account in the Bengal Census report of 1901. The word Sarak is doubtless derived from Srawak, the Sanskrit words for "a hearer" amongst the Jains the term was used to indicate the laymen or persons who engaged in secular pursuits as distinguished from the jatis, the monks or ascetics; and it still survives as the name of a group which is rapidly becoming a regular caste of the usual type. The Buddhists used the same words to designate the second class of monks, who mainly occupied the monesteries; the highest class of Arhats usually lived solitary lives as hermits while the great majority of the Bhikshus or Lowest class of monks, led a vagrant life of mendicancy, only resorting to the monasteries in times of difficulty or distress. In course of time, the saraks appear to have taken to weaving as a means of livelihood and this is