538 Dr. Buchanan Hamilton on the Srdwacs or Jains. 



all these ten religious acts (Das'a-karma), and also to the ceremony of 

 initiation, which the Srdwacs here entirely neglect. All the Srdwacs 

 ought to be Amaratas, which order requires their obsei-ving the five great 

 virtues lately mentioned, as far at least as is consistent with the existence of 

 society ; for what I have called chastity is a total abstinence from sexual 

 intercourse ; and poverty implies the total neglect of worldly concerns ; and 

 these rules, observed with rigour, are evidently incompatible with the 

 existence of society. 



The Srd-aacs worship their twenty-four great teachers, usually here called 

 Avatars, although Tir^haficara seems to be the more proper name ; and 

 also some of their most celebrated disciples, among wliom eleven attendants 

 on Mahavira are the most conspicuous. Of these Gautama is by far the 

 most eminent, and seems to be as remarkable here as Gomet-rai is in the 

 south. 



Mr. Colebrooke, in his treatise on the Jains, published in t'le Asiatic 

 Researches,* says that this person is called Gautama on account of 

 his beino- descended from that race, and such may be the case. The Yati 

 at Bihar, and G^indu of Patna, assured me, however, that they consider 

 the disciple of Mahavira as the son of Mayadevi, and as the author of 

 the Indian metaphysics ; nor in the pedigree of Gautama or Sakya that 

 is o-iven in the Sri-Bhdgaxcat, although it ascends for one hundred and sixteen 

 generations to Mahichi, created by Brahma, can I discover any other per- 

 son named Gautama. 



In their temples the Swetdmbaras have images of all these persons, which 

 they worship ; but their devotions are more usually addressed to what are 

 called the representations of their feet. 



The places where all these personages were begotten (Garbha), where 

 they were born (Janma), where they resigned worldly pleasures {Dicshyd), 

 where they began to meditate (Jnydna), and where they departed from this 

 world (Nirtwia) are considered holy, and are frequented by pilgrims. Many 

 such Tirt'has are found in these districts. All the twenty-four Tirt'hancaras 

 are said to have been sons of kings, except Nema-nat'h, and he was of the 

 royal family of the Moon, being descended from Yadu, the ancestor of 

 CrTshna ; VAsup6jya, another of these Tirfhancaras, died at Champdnagar, 

 in the reicn of Rdjd Dadhibahan, who lived after Kama. These circum- 



* As. Res., vol. ix. p. ."03. 



