Lieut.-Colonel Mixes on the Jainas of Gujerat and Marwdr. 337 
order ; they teach them their learning, and appoint the most able to succeed 
them. 
The Mahéswaris, who are the followers of the Brahmans, despise the 
Séwrds, and consider it contamination to associate or even converse with 
them. They say, that if on one side of the road there be a mad elephant, 
and on the other the parsdl or house of a Séwit, it is better to face the 
elephant than to enter the house. 
The Jainas say, that the original founder of their religion was Gautama, 
one of the seven Rishis or Saints, who for some cause, the detail of which 
is too long for insertion here, was born in the Brahman caste or tribe. 
Men of every caste and class may be received among the Séwrds, in 
opposition to the Brahmans, who admit no one into their order. 
The Séwrds are divided into eighty-four Guchcl’ has or sects. 
Of the Srdvacas. 
The Srdvacas are a people derived from different tribes of Hindus, and 
dispersed throughout all the towns and cities of Hind. 
The chief of these are two tribes, the O'sawdl and Srimdli ; these are 
considered perfect, as there is no mixture of persons professing the 
Mohéswari or Hindi faith in them (this I believe is a mistake as far as 
regards the Srimdilis). In the Poréwdl tribe there are both Hindus and 
Jainas, and for this reason they, with the O'sawdls and Srimilis, are called 
the Arhdi (23) tribes of S’rdvacas. The O’sawédls were originally inhabitants 
of the town of O'sawar, in Mar'war’,, and the greater part of them are descended 
from Rajpits, but are called Vanyas, from their having become the disciples 
or followers of the Séwrds. 
The cause and mode of their conversion to the Jaina religion is differently 
related; the account however which the writer of this history received from 
Rattan Sinua BanpwAnri (the Ndib of Maud RAsh Asuny Sinus, Siba 
of Gujerat), and who was himself a Chéhan Rajput,* is as follows : 
In former times a Séwrt travelling in Mar'war’ arrived at a village the 
inhabitants of which were all Rajptits, and as he could not obtain charity 
from them, he was obliged to fast all night. It happened that during the 
night the son of the chief of the village was bitten by a snake, and died in 
consequence, and, as is customary in India, great lamentation was made for 
a en ae 
* It is more probable that his ancestors were Réjpats, as he himself was a Vanya. 
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