Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 22.djvu/40

 existence.' The tradition of the Gainas appears to Mr. Barth to have been formed of vague recollections in imitation of the Buddhist tradition.

Mr. Barth seems to base his theory on the assumption that the Gainas must have been careless in handing down their sacred lore, since they formed, for many centuries, but a small and unimportant sect. I cannot see the force of this argument of Mr. Barth's. Is it more likely that a sect of which the not very numerous followers are scattered over a large country, or a church which has to satisfy the religious wants of a great multitude, will better preserve its original tenets and traditions? It is impossible to decide this question on à priori grounds. The Jews and the Parsis may be adduced as instances in favour of the former view, the Roman Catholic church as one in favour of the latter. But we are not obliged to rely on such generalities in order to decide the question at issue with regard to the Gainas, for they were so far from having only dim notions of their own doctrines that they pronounced as founders of schisms those who differed from the great bulk of the faithful in comparatively unimportant details of belief. This fact is proved by the tradition about the seven sects of the Svetâmbaras made known by Dr. Leumann. The Digambaras also, who separated from the Svetâmbaras probably in the second or third century after the Nirvâna, differ from their rivals but little with regard to philosophical tenets; yet they were nevertheless stigmatised by the latter as heretics on account of their rules of conduct. All these facts show that the Gainas, even previous to the redaction of their sacred books, had not a confused and undefined creed, which would have been liable to become altered and defiled by doctrines adopted from widely different religions, but one in which even the minutest details of belief were fixed.

What has been said about the religious doctrines of the Gainas can also be proved of their historical traditions. For the detailed lists of teachers handed down in the several Gakkhas, and those incorporated in their sacred