( 413 ) 



XXIII. Of the SRjjrAcs or Jains. By Major James Delamaine, Bengal 

 Army. Commimicafed 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 Jai7is, 

 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 Srdreac 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.! 



The Srdxcac Yatis have fashioned much of history and tradition to 

 suit their particidar 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 Bhadra-Bahu Muni, in 

 his interpretation of the fourteen dreams of Chandragupta, 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 estabhshed. 

 The Yat'is of their own sects are their officiating priests. The Srdwacs do 



• Major D. writes the word Brits. I have 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 Kesearches, and in the Transactions of this Society. Tlie term is Vrata, 

 a vow. It is an obligation superadded to a religious or moral one. See further on. H. T. C. 



f That the Srdwacs, or the more early Jains, had princes and sway, there is abundant proof. 



