Lieut.-Colonel Mixes on the Jainas of Gujerat and Marwdr, 351 
a hearer of the Sidd’hdntas, or sacred books, and a believer in the doctrines 
contained in them. Svrdvaca, however, is said to be an improper appellation 
as applied to the latter, the correct term for a layman being S‘rdmandpdsaca, 
the signification of which is “ the servant or follower of the Sid’hus.” 
The priesthood may be divided into two classes, the Sdd’hus and Jalis— 
these were originally the same; at present, the first is composed of ascetics, 
who retire from the world of their own free-will, and pass their lives in 
meditation and austerities; and the second of individuals taken from all 
classes of the community, who are purchased in their infancy by the Jatis, 
and initiated into their order at ten or eleven years of age, they are a kind 
of secular priesthood, as far as relates to the possession of wealth, and some 
other indulgencies, although in some degree subject to monastic rules; the 
the Sd@’hwis and A’ryds, or women of these religious orders, live separate 
from the males, and to them is in general committed the instruction of the 
Srdvacds, or females of the Vanyas. 
The S‘rdvacas of Gujerat and Mar'war are mostly of the Vaisya or Vanya 
class, including some cotton-printers, silk-weavers, and husbandmen. 
The Vanyas are subdivided into eighty-four Nat, or tribes; this number, 
however, includes both Jainas and Mahéswaris, or Hindis. 
Most of the Jaina tribes, as stated by themselves, are derived from 
Rajputs, and Brahmans.* The period about which the change of profession 
or caste, and religion, is said to have occurred, in the most considerable, or 
the Srimdli, O'saw#l, and Pérewdr tribes, will be found in the following 
detail. 
Of the eighty-four tribes of Vanyas. 
1. The S’rimdli tribe. This is said to be derived from the Parmé)t 
tribe of Rajputs, which appears at some early period to have migrated from 
Sinde and Parkar, to Mar'war, and a part of it to have taken up its quarters 
* It is worthy of remark, that the Jainas of this part of the country universally acknowledge 
their derivation from the Hindds; and as a further proof of their origin, it is to be observed 
that their marriage ceremonies are to this day performed by a Brahman, styled the Nat Guru, 
or priest of the tribe. 
+ Tradition records that the dominion of this tribe extended from Sinde to M4lwa previous to 
the Musalmén invasion. Chandravati, a city in ruins near the Abi mountain, appears to have 
been their capital on this side of India. 
Vor. III. 2Z 
