Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/113

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
JAINISM.
97
JAIPUR.

flowers, green fruits, roots, honey, grapes, to- bacco; drink water thrice strained, and never leave a liquid uncovered lest an insect shoukl be drowned in it; it is his duty also to visit daily a temple where some of the images of the Jain saints are placed, walk round it three times, make an obeisance to the image, and make oll'erings of fruits or flowers, while pronouncing some such formula as "Salutation to the Saints, to the Pure Existences, to the Sages, to the Teachers, to all the Devout in the world." The render in a Jain temple is a Yati, but the minis- trant priest is not seldom a Brahman, and the presence of such Bralijnanieal ministrants seems to have introduced several innova- tions in their worship. In Upper India the ritual in use is often intermixed with formulas belonging more properly to the Saiva and Sakta worship, and images of Siva and his consort have their place in jaina temples. In the south of India they appear, as mentioned before, to ob- .sen'e also all the essential rites or Sanskaras of the Brahnianical Hindu. The festivals of the Jainas are especially those relating to events in the life of their deified saints; but they observe also several common to other Hindus, as the spring festival, the Sripanchami, and others. The Jains are divided into two principal divi- sions, Digamhanis and tiirlCimharas. The for- mer word means 'sky-clad,' or naked, and it is thought that the Gymnosophists. or naked dev- otees, to whom the Greek writers allude, were Jains; but this is not quite certain. (See Gym- KOSOPIII.STS.) At the present day ascetics of the Digambara class wear colored garments, and con- fine the disuse of clothes to the period of their meals. SvctCimbara means 'one who wears white garments' ; but the differences l)etween these two divisions are far from being restricted to that of dress : it is said to comprehend a list of 700 topics, of which 84 are considered to be of paramount importance. In the south of India the .lains are divided into two castes; in Upper Hindustan they are all of one caste. It is re- markable, however, that among themselves they recognize a number of families between which no intermarriage can take place, and that they resemble in this respect also the ancient Brah- nianical Hindus, who established similar restric- tions in their religious codes. As regards the pantheon of the Jaina creed it is more fantastic than that of the Brahmanic sects, whence it is borrowed to a great extent, but without any of the poetical and philosophical interest which inheres in the gods of the Vedic time. The highest rank among their number- less hosts of divine beings — divided by them into four classes, with various subdivisions — they assign to the deified saints, whom they call Jinn. Arhat, or Tirlhnkara, i.e. prophet, besides a va- riety of other generic names. The Jainas enu- merate twenty-four Tirthakaras of their past age, twenty-four of the present, and twenty-finir of the age to come : and they invest these holy personages with thirty-six superhuman attributes of the most extravagant character. Notwith- standing the sameness of these attributes, they distinguish the twenty-four Jinas of the present age from each other in color, stature, and lon- gevity. Two of them are red. two white, two blue, two black : the rest arc of a golden hue or a yellowish brown. The other two peculiarities are regulated by them with equal precision, and according to a system of decrement, from Rishab- ha, the first Jina, who was five hundred poles in stature, and lived 8,400,000 great years, down to ilahavira, the twenty-fourth, who had degen- erated to the size of a man, and was no more than forty years on earth, the age of his prede- cessor, Parsvanatha, not exceeding one hundred years. The present worship is almost restricted to the last two Tirthakaras; and these may be considered as historical personages. As, more- over, among the disciples of Mahavira there is one Indrabhatij who is called Gautama, and as Gautama is also a name of the founder of the Buddha faith, it has been thought that Gautama Sakyamuni, the Buddha, is alluded to; but this is not accepted, although Buddha calls himself by the title of .Jina, 'The Conqueiing One,' and the Buddhist .scriptures also sometimes speak of him as the twenty-fifth Buddha or .Jina. Jainism. in contrast to Buddhism, never spread beyond the bounds of India; on the other hand, it has lived longer than Buddhism in the land that gave it birth. Prakrit is the canonical speech of .Jainism. but the sacred literature of the Jains is uninteresting or stupid. Among the best older essays on the tenets, mythology, observances, and literature of this sect are those of Colebrooke in his Miscellaneous Essaiis. ed. l.y Cowell. vol. ii. (London. 1873), and Wilson, Essays, vol. i. (London, 1802). Jlore recent and important is the sketch by ilonier-Will- iams, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic So- ciety, vol. XX. (London, 1888) ; Jacobi, 'Jaina Sutras,' in the Sacred Books of the East, vols. xxii.. xlv. (Oxford, 1884-95), and the excellent outline by Hopkins, "Jainism," in Religion of India (Boston, 1805). On Jain literature, con- sult: Weber, Sacred Literature of the Jains, trans, by Smyth (Bombay, 189.'?): on Jain ar- chitecture, Ferguson, Care Temples of India (London, 1880) ; and Burgess. Buddhist and Jaina Cares (ib., 1881-83). JAINTIA (jln'ti-:'i) HILLS. A mountainous region of Assam, British India, covering an area of about 2000 square miles. ■ With the Khasi Hills it gives its name to a governmental dis- trict. Coal and limestone are the chief mineral products; rice is growTa. The hill villages are inhabited chiefly by Panars. a race which differs in language and creed from the Khasis, who call tliem S itengs. JAIPUR, ji-poor', or JEYPORE, -pOr'. A native Eajputana State, India, bordering on Bikanir, Bhartpur, Gwalior. Jodh]nir. and other regions. Area, 1.5.349 square miles. Popula- tion, in 1891. 2.S32.300: in 1901. 2.658.100. The surface is generally level except to the north and northwest, where it is broken by a spur of the Aravalli ilountains. It is sparsely watered, but this defect is gradually being overconie by extensive irrigation works. Corn, wheat, barley, cotton, tobacco, sugar-cane, and the poppy are cultivated, and cattle are raised. Cojiper. co- balt, black and white marble exist, and salt is manufactured. Cai'ifal. .Jaipur. JAIPUR, or JEYPORE. The capital of the protected State of the same name, and perhaps the handsomest and most regularly built of the native towns of India CMap: India. C 3). It lies 850 miles northwest of Calcutta, with which it is connected by rail. It is built on a plain surrounded by hills, except to the southwest, where the plain merges into a desert. It was