Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 3.djvu/182

Rh converts. Should a Hindoo become a Jain, he is admitted into that caste or rank of Jainism which corresponds with his original condition. In like manner, though the Hindoo faith cannot receive converts, Jains, as schismatics, can be received back into it, falling into the rank to which their Jain caste entitles them. As with Hindoos, castes among Jains do not intermarry promiscuously: each caste remains to itself There is no reverence among Jains for Brahmins; indeed, much the contrary; and their assumption of sacred character is held in supreme contempt. Bathing among Brahmins is essential to purification; but the Jain priests, who are called Jetti, never bathe; nor is ablution among any Jains, male or female, as constant as cleanliness requires in a hot climate.

Both the Buddhists and the Jains established monarchies. The former attained its greatest power under Asóca, about 250, from which time it declined, and the religion, as a national faith, became gradually extinguished after the Christian era. The Buddhist kings had ruled over the greater part of India; but the Jain dynasties were more local, and had attained their greatest power about the sixth century. At that period the Vullhubhi dynasty existed in Guzerat, the Chalukya at Kullian in the Dekhan, and there were others in Western India and Mysore. Some of the Rajpoot dynasties for a period became Jain, and again relapsed into the Brahminical faith. Wherever the Jains held power, they left memorials of it in their architecture, which, in many respects, is the most beautiful and scientific in India. On the mountains of Aboo and Girnar, and the hill of Sutroonjee in Guzerat, their marble temples are of the most exquisite design and finish; and the same may be said of all their works in that province, as well as in Kajpootana. The wealth expended upon these edifices must have been enormous, and many of them are still quite perfect. In Western India and Mysore theii I)uildings are equally beautiful in design and execution, thongh the material— basalt, hornstone, and sandstone—could not compete with the exquisite fine marble of Guzerat and Rajpootana. The Jains not only established an order of architecture which rivals the Greek in many respects, but their artificers gave a character to the Mahomedan architecture which followed, that is nowhere else seen in India, and is one of remarkable beauty. Two magnificent photographic works, brought out in 1866 under the direction of the Committee of Architectural Antiquities of Western India—one illustrative of the Mahomedan buildings of Guzerat, the other of temples in Dharwar and Mysore—are the only publications extant which give a true idea of the beauty of these ancient remains, and it is hoped may be followed by others.

The Jain power had declined before the Brahminical, previous to the Mahomedan invasions of India; and many localities, particularly of Western India, show, by numberless ruined temples, colleges, and other sacred edifices, the bitter persecution they underwent; but the Jain faith was never extinguished like the