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XXIII. Of the Sráwacs or Jains. By Major James Delamaine, Bengal Army. Communicated by Major-General Sir John Malcolm, G.C.B., &c.
Read February 18, 1826.
From what I can collect regarding the Srdwacs, or laity of the Jains, they appear to be the only considerable remnant in India of the earlier Jains, or Arhatas. They follow principally the trade of Banyas, dealing in grain ; and as Srdwac Banyas, necessarily adhere to the Jain laws: but as their particular calling seems to have required rules for their guidance, much of the twelve vratas* refers to their commercial transactions, as connected with moral duties. I do not think these vratas formed a part of the older Jain institutes at all; nor could such a code be brought to apply to any except the subordinate tribes, it being quite unsuitable to any purpose of government.t
The Srdawac Yatis have fashioned much of history and tradition to suit their particular purpose, rendering it doubtful what is their invention and what original. They admit that they have no longer the distinctions of caste, at least of the higher orders (this was most likely lost by them on their separation from the older stock); and that the extinction of the Brahman and Cshatriya classes was predicted by Buapra-Banu Muni, in his interpretation of the fourteen dreams of Cuanpracupra, whom they make out in the Buddha-vildsa, a Digambar work, to have been the monarch of Ougein (Ujjayani). The dream of the lotos also, which predicted that Brahmans and Cshatriyas will no longer choose the Jain faith, strengthens the common belief, that the Jains had never a distinct institution of four great castes, but formed them of proselytes from those already established. The Yatis of their own sects are their officiating priests. The Srdwacs do
- Major D. writes the word Brits. Ihave corrected the orthography here, as throughout
the present communication, to adapt it to the system followed in the orthography of Indian words in the Asiatic Researches, and in the Transactions of this Society. The term is Vrata, avow. Itis an obligation superadded to a religious or moral one. See further on.—H. T. C. + That the Srdwacs, or the more early Jains, had princes and sway, there is abundant proof.
