Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/568

544 J A I J A I the statues of the different Jinas, otherwise identical, in the different Jain temples. Very little is at present known of the details of the Jain system of belief. But fresh light is being thrown upon this question year by year, and some of their principal tenets are already beyond dispute. The Jains are divided into two great parties, the Digambaras, or Sky-clad Ones, and the Swetdmbaras, or the White-robed Ones. The latter have only as yet been traced, and that doubtfully, as far back as the 6th century after Christ ; the former are almost certainly the same as the Niganthas, who are referred to in numerous passages of the Buddhist Pfdi Pitakas, and must therefore be at least as old as the 4th century B.C. In many of these passages the Niganthas are mentioned as contemporaneous with the Buddha ; and details enough are given concerning their leader Nigautha Nata-putta (that is, the Nigantha of the Jnatrika clan) to enable us to identify him, without any doubt, as the same person as the Vardhamana Matha-vira of the Jain books. This remarkable confirmation, from the scriptures of a rival religion, of the Jain tradition seems conclusive as to the date of Matha-vira ; and, should any one still doubt the antiquity of the sect, it may be mentioned here that the Niganthas are referred to in one of Asoka s edicts (Corpus Inscriptlonum, Plate xx.). Unfortunately the account of the teachings of Nigantha Nata-putta given in the Buddhist scriptures are, like those of the Buddha s teachings given in tlie Brahmanical literature, not only very meagre, but also very little to be depended upon. And the Jain scrip tures themselves, though based on earlier traditions, are not older in their present form than the 6th century of our era. The most distinctively sacred books are called the forty-five Agamas, consisting of eleven Angas, twelve Upangas, ten Pakinuakas, six Chedas, four Mula-sutras, and two other books. Several of these are in process of trans lation into English for the series of translations from the sacred books of the East now being published under the auspices of the university of Oxford. It was Devaddhi- ganin, who occupies among the Jains a position very similar to that occupied among the Buddhists by Buddho- ghosa, who at the date just mentioned collected the then existing traditions and teachings of the sect into these forty-five Agamas. It is most probable that, previous to his time, the sacred lore of the Jains was handed down by memory, and not by writing. This mode of transmitting a literature seems very unsafe according to modern European ideas. But when we call to mind the very great value of the historical results drawn from the Vedas and the Buddhist scriptures, both of which were for many centuries preserved for posterity by memory alone, we may confidently look for ward to important additions to our knowledge when the Jain Agamas shall have been made accessible to European scholars. Like the Buddhist scriptures, the earlier Jain books are written in a dialect of their own, the so-called Jaina Prakrit; and it was not till between 1000 and 1100 A.D. that the Jains adopted Sanskrit as their literary language. The most distinguishing outward peculiarity of Maha-vira and of his earliest followers was their practice of going quite naked, whence the term Digambara. Against this custom Gautama, the Buddha, especially warned his followers ; and it is referred to in the well-known Greek phrase Gymnosophist, used already by Megasthenes, which applies very aptly to the Niganthas. Even the earliest name Nigantha, which means "free from "bonds," may not be without allusions to this curious belief in the sanctity of nakedness, though it also alluded to freedom from the bonds of sin and of transmigration. The statues of the Jinas in the Jain temples, some of which are of enormous size, are still always quite naked ; but the Jains themselves have abandoned the practice, the Digambaras being sky-clad at meal time only, and the Swetambaras being always completely clothed. And even among the Digambaras it is only the recluses or Yatis, men devoted to a religious life, who carry out this practice. The Jain laity the Sravakas, or disciples do not adopt it. The supreme aim of the Jains as of the Buddhists is called j 7 irvdiia ; but the word conveys different ideas in the two religions. The Jains appear to believe in the existence of a soul inside the human body, and in the transmigration of souls ; and their Nirvana seems to consist in the delivery of the soul from this transmigration. It differs from the moksha of the Hindus in that the Jains, not teaching the existence of a supreme being, do not hope for an absorption of the soul into the deity. This Nirvana will follow on the belief in certain metaphysical theories, the nature of which still remains unknown to scholars. But it is to be accompanied by the practice of the four virtues liberality, gentleness, piety, and remorse for failings by goodness in thought, word, and deed, and by kindness to the inute creation and even to the forms of vegetable life. This last item in their belief, though common to the Jains and the Buddhists, has been carried out by the Jains to a more extreme result, and seems to be based on the wide extension of the doctrine of the soul. They regard all animals and plants as endowed with souls, and they consider it an act of piety to put up and to maintain hospitals for sick animals. They believe also in the existence of numerous angels or demons, good and bad, among whom they include most of the deities of the Hindu pantheon ; and the later Jains do not scruple to render a kind of worship to these spirits. This practice is, however, not in accordance with the earlier and stricter Jain ism ; and it is the negative side of their creed, their denial of the power of the gods, of the authority of the Vedas, and of the sacrcdness of caste, which has been the most important part of their teaching. Practically, no doubt, many of their laity adhere to some of the social caste distinctions of the Hindus ; and their authors quote the Yedas with respect when passages from the Vedas can be used in support of their own views ; but no distinction of caste excludes from their religious orders, or prevents the attainment of their Nirvana ; and the Vedas, even when quoted, are not regarded as conclusively authoritative. Professor Jacobi, who is the best authority on the history of this sect, thus sums up the distinction between the Maha-vlra and the Buddha: "Maha-vira was rather of the ordinary class of religious men in India. He may be allowed a talent for religious matters, but he possessed not the genius which Buddha undoubtedly had The Buddha s philosophy forms a system based on a few fundamental ideas, whilst that of Maha-vira scarcely forms a system, but is merely a sum of opinions (pannattis] on various subjects, no fundamental ideas being there to uphold the mass of metaphysical matter. Besides this .... it is the ethical element that gives to the Buddhist writings their superiority over those of the Jains. Maha-vira treated ethics as corollary and subordinate to his metaphysics, with which he was chiefly con cerned." sc/irift der deutsc/ien morg. Ges. for 1874; " Zwei Jama Stotra, edited m the Indische Stndien, vol. xv. ; Ein Fragment der Bhagarati, by Professor Weber; Mt : - moires de VAcademie d Berlin, 180(i; Kirayaraliya Sutta, edited by Dr Warren, with Dutch introduction, Amsterdam, 1879 ; Over de yodsdienstige en wijfgeerifie Begrippen der Jainai, by Dr Wan-en (his doctor-dissertation, Zwolle, 1875) ; Be.i- Cave Temples in India, London, 1880. (T. W. K. D.) JAINTIA HILLS. For administrative purposes the Jaintia Hills are regarded as a subdivision of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills district, in the province of Assam. They cover an area of about 2000 square miles, and are bounded N. by the district of Nowgong, E. by Cachar, S. by Sylhet, and W. by the Khasi Hills. The Jaintia Hills are divided into twenty-five fiscal divisions, of which three are inhabited by Kukf or Lu&hdi immigrants, and one by Mikirs. The remainder (if the inhabitants are Syntengs, a race akin to the KhAsis, but with distinct ethnical characteristics and language. The chief crop is rice, grown on the nomadic system of agricul ture known as jum. The most valuable natural product is limestone, which is quarried on the river banks, and despatched by water into Bengal from the Sylhet markets. Coal of excellent quality has been found in situations mostly inaccessible to water traffic. The Syntengs arc keen traders, and retain in their own hands the valuable commerce of their hills. They frequent the markets held in the chain of villages at the foot of the hills on the Sylhet side. In 1876-77 the total value of exports from the sub division was 19,000, and of the imports (chiefly cotton, woollen, and silk cloth, rice, dried fish, salt, and tobacco) 34,560. The gross revenue in the same year was 1271.