JAIN or Jaina, a sect. in British India which numbers 1,221,896. Their founder was a Hindu named Rishaba Deva: Their doctrines differ from Buddhism in this; that they recognise in the Jina Pati or Adi Buddha. a divine personal ruler of all. They differ from Hindus in denying the divine origin and infallibility of the Vedas, and by their reverencing holy men whom they style Tirthankara, and also by their extreme, even ludicrous, tenderness of animal life.
The provinces of Mewar and Marwar became the cradle of their system, and there, as also in the Dekhan, they have many fine temples. They are to be found in most of the provinces'of Upper India, in the cities along the Ganges, in Calcutta, Gujerat, in the northern part of the Malabar coast, and scattered throughout the Peninsula. The Jaina religion seems to have flourished for a time at Conjeveram and Mysore, and appears to have there succeeded Buddhism, after its expul sion in the 7th century. But they have main tained their ground in Rajputana and in arts of Mysore, and followers of their creed hold in their hands a large part of the wealth and trade of .India. • Sayana, in the Sarva darsanan graha, expounds the system of the Jaina sect: Their Angas con stitute their true Veda. The Kalpa Sutra of Bhadra. Bahu and Nawa Tatwa are two works illustrative of the Jaina religion and philosophy. The Yoga Sutra gives a summary of its morals. The Digambara sect regard the Kalpa Sutra as apocryphal. . The Chatranjaya Mahatmya is a work of biography and legend.
Their leading religious tenets consist in a denial of the divine origin and infallibility of the Vedas ; -secondly, in the reverence of certain saints or holy mortals, who acquired by practices of self-denial and mortification a station superior to that df the gods ; and thirdly, extreme and even ludicrous tenderness for animal life. The disregard of the Vedas and veneration of mortals are common to the Jain and Biaddhist, and the former involves a neglect of the rites which they prescribe, but so far as the doctrine which they teach are conformable to Jain tenets,'the Vedas are admitted and quoted as an authority. The
Buddhists, although they admit that an endless number of earthly Buddhas have existed, confine their reverence to seven. But the Jain sect extend their number to twenty-four of their past age, twenty-four of their present, and twenty-foui of the age to come. The statues of these, eitier all or in part, are collected in their temples, some times of colossal dimensions, and usually of black or white marble.
Their Jinas or Tirthankaras have come to be regarded as veritable deities.
- The saints held in highest esteem in Hindustan are Parswanatha and Mahavira, the twenty-third and Jina of the present era. The generic names of a Jaffna saint express the ideas entertained of his character by his votaries. He is Jagat prabhu, lord of the world ; Kshina Karmma, free from bodily or ceremonial acts ; Sarvajna, omniscient ; Adhiswara, supreme lord ; Devadi Deva, god of gods ; Tirthakara or Tir thankara, one who has crossed over Tiryati anena, that is, the world compared to the ocean ; Kevali, the possessor of spiritual nature, free from its investing sources of error ; Arhat, entitled to the homage of gods and men ; Jina, the' victor over all human passions and in firmities.
The last of the Jina was Mahavira, who was born of Trisala, wife of Siddhartha, of the family ' of Ikshwaku, and prince of Pavana, in Baratak shetra, and he married Yasodha, daughter of the prince of Samaravira. He afterwards became a Digambara or naked ascetic, and led in silence an erratic life for twelve years, and during his wanderings in this state he was repeatedly mal treated. He then commenced to lecture at Apa papuri in Behar. His first disciples were Brah mans of Magada, and Indrabhuti or Gautama of the Brahman tribe of Gautama rishi, who is not iden tical with the Gautama of the Brahmans. Maha vira died B.C. 600, at the age of 72, of which 38 had been spent in religious duties.