1898.] Annual Address, 51 



nuns were very active in the interest of their faith, especially among the 

 female members of the lay community, since in all cases, except one, lay- 

 women dedicated images at the request of nuns. This fully agrees with 

 the statements of the Jain scriptures. Moreo\^er it affords an addi- 

 tional proof of the very early split of the order into the two sections 

 of the ^vetambaras and Digambaras. For the latter do not admit nuns 

 into the order ; only the pvetarabaias do so. The inscriptions, therefore, 

 prove that the Mathura settlement was one of the f vefarabara section, 

 and that the split of the order was already fully established in the 

 first century of our era. 



Another point clearly brought out by the inscriptions is the posi- 

 tion of the lay element in the Jain community. I have already re- 

 marked that that element formed an integral part of the Jain 

 organization, and shown the very important bearing of this point on the 

 fortunes of the Jain order. The inscriptions apply to the laymen and 

 laywomen the terms Cravaka and pravika respectively, — terms which 

 have survived to the present day in the form of Saraogi by which the Jain 

 laity are often known. Among the Buddhists the term <pravaka is also 

 used, but there it signifies an Arhat, that is a monk of a particular degree 

 of sanctity. This circumstance not only marks the position of tlie lay 

 element within the Jaiti order, but also brings out clearly an essential 

 difference between the two great orders of Jains and Buddhists. 



Again another point worthy of notice is that the inscriptions often 

 mention the caste of Jain lay-people. I have already remarked how 

 erroneous the idea is that Jainism or Buddhism intended to subvert the 

 caste system. A lay convert to Jainism does not loose his caste by his 

 conversion. He may have to give up the exercise of the trade of his 

 caste, but if he wants a wife for himself or his son, or a husband for 

 his daughter, he can only get them from his old caste. Thus one 

 inscription records a donation by a layman of the lobar or smith's caste. 

 He cannot have been a smith after his conversion, because Jainism 

 forbids that trade to a layman. The reference, therefore, must be to 

 the caste to which he or his ancestors belonged. It appears, however, 

 from the inscriptions that even then, as in our days, most of the lay 

 people belonged to the mercantile rather than the artificing classes. 



I might mention many more points of detail in which the inscrip- 

 tions discovered in Mathura corroborate the statements of the Jain 

 books ; but I must refer those who mny be interested in the subject, for 

 further information to the papers themselves of Hofrath Prof. Biihler. 

 There is one point, however, which I must not pass over. There is 

 hardly another thing which has hitherto been considered a more charac- 

 teristic external mark of Buddhism than tlie well-known Wheel and Stupa 



