t method of expending his money and acquiring
religious merit, and some of them spend all their fortune in this
manner before their death. At the opening of a new temple the _rath_
or chariot festival should be held. Wooden cars are made, sometimes
as much as five stories high, and furnished with chambers for the
images of the Tirthakars. In these the idols of the hosts and all
the guests are placed. Each car should be drawn by two elephants, and
the procession of cars moves seven times round the temple or pavilion
erected for the ceremony. For building a temple and performing this
ceremony honorary and hereditary titles are conferred. Those who do
it once receive the designation of Singhai; for carrying it out twice
they become Sawai Singhai; and on a third occasion Seth. In such a
ceremony performed at Khurai in Saugor one of the participators was
already a Seth, and in recognition of his great liberality a new
title was devised and he became Srimant Seth. It is said, however,
that if the car breaks and the elephants refuse to move, the title
becomes derisive and is either 'Lule Singhai,' the lame one, or
'Arku Singhai,' the stumbler. If no elephants are available and the
car has to be dragged by men, the title given is Kadhore Singhai.

12. Images of the Tirthakars.

In the temples are placed the images of Tirthakars, either of brass,
marble, silver or gold. The images may be small or life-size or larger,
and the deities are represented in a sitting posture with their legs
crossed and their hands lying upturned in front, the right over the
left, in the final attitude of contemplation prior to escape from
the body and attainment of paradise. There may be several images
in one temple, but usually there is only one, though a number of
temples are built adjoining each other or round a courtyard. The
favourite Tirthakars found in temples are Rishab Deva, the first;
Anantnath, the fourteenth; Santnath, the sixteenth; Nemnath,
the twenty-second; Parasnath, the twenty-third; and Vardhamana or
Mahavira, the twenty-fourth. [279] As already stated only Mahavira
and perhaps Parasnath, his preceptor, were real historical personages,
and the remainder are mythical. It is noticeable that to each of the
Tirthakars is attached a symbol, usually in the shape of an animal,
and also a tree, apparently that tree under which the Tirthakar is
held to have been seated at the time that he obtained release from
the body. And these ani