( 395 °°) 
XIX. On the Jainas of Gyerat and Marwar.—Part 1. By Lieut.-Colonel 
Wittram Mires. 
(Communicated by the Bomeay Brancu of the Royat Asraric Society.) 
Read 7th of January 1832. 
Tue following extract from a Persian work, entitled the Mirdt i Ahmadi, 
part of which is devoted to a description of the religion and customs of the 
Jainas, appearing to me a compendious (although in some points a rather 
inaccurate) account of that people, I have taken the liberty to prefix it, by 
way of introduction, to my own paper. 
Of the Séwrds, Jaiis, or Priests of the Jainas. 
The Séwrds, also called Jatis (Sans. Yatis), area body of holy mendicants, 
who live in celibacy, and in general employ their leisure time in the culti- 
vation of the sciences of medicine, astrology, and divinity. 
With the exception of the sect called D’hénd’hids, who do not worship 
images, they worship the figure of PArs’wanAr’Ha; their abstinence is 
extremely austere, some, at a particular period called Pajusan(?), fasting 
forty days. 
During the four rainy months they remain in one place, their head priests 
selecting particular towns and villages for their residence during that 
period. 
The first principle of their religion is the preservation of animal life ; 
and with a view to its more strict observance, they go bare-footed. Some 
wear cloths over their mouths, that the heat of the breath may not injure 
such insects as are too minute to be seen or avoided. 
They consider the digging of tanks, wells, and gardens as a crime, 
because many insects are thereby destroyed. They will not light a lamp 
or a fire, cook their victuals, or draw water from a well during the night. 
They subsist on bread and water, which they collect from the houses of 
their followers, the S’rdvaca-vanyas. Some make a vow to beg their sub- 
Vou. III. 2X 
