nifies
sky-clad, and Swetambara white-clad. Formerly the Digambara ascetics
went naked, and were the gymnosophists of the Greek writers, but now
they take off their clothes, if at all, only at meals. The theory
of the origin of the two sects is that Parasnath, the twenty-third
Tirthakar, wore clothes, while Mahavira the twenty-fourth did not,
and the two sects follow their respective examples. The Digambaras now
wear ochre-coloured cloth, and the Swetambaras white. The principal
difference at present is that the images in Digambara temples are naked
and bare, while those of the Swetambaras are clothed, presumably in
white, and also decorated with jewellery and ornaments. The Digambara
ascetics may not use vessels for cooking or holding their food, but
must take it in their hands from their disciples and eat it thus;
while the Swetambara ascetics may use vessels. The Digambara, however,
do not consider the straining-cloth, brush, and gauze before the
mouth essential to the character of an ascetic, while the Swetambara
insist on them. There is in the Central Provinces another small sect
called Channagri or Samaiya, and known elsewhere as Dhundia. These do
not put images in their temples at all, but only copies of the Jain
sacred books, and pay reverence to them. They will, however, worship
in regular Jain temples at places where there are none of their own.

7. Jain ascetics.

The initiation of a Yati or Jati, a Jain ascetic, is thus described:
It is frequent for Banias who have no children to vow that their
first-born shall be a Yati. Such a boy serves a novitiate with a _guru_
or preceptor, and performs for him domestic offices; and when he is
old enough and has made progress in his studies he is initiated. For
this purpose the novice is carried out of the tower with music and
rejoicing in procession, followed by a crowd of Sravakas or Jain
laymen, and taken underneath the banyan, or any other tree the juice of
which is milky. His hair is pulled out at the roots with five pulls;
camphor, musk, sandal, saffron and sugar are applied to the scalp;
and he is then placed before his _guru,_ stripped of his clothes and
with his hands joined. A text is whispered in his ear by the _guru_,
and he is invested with the clothes peculiar to Yatis; two cloths, a
blanket and a staff; a plate for his victuals and a cloth to tie them
up in; a piece of gauze to tie over his mouth to prevent the entry
of insects; a cloth through wh