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a few short footnotes. Professor Buehler's long note on the authenticity of the Jaina tradition I have transferred to an appendix (p. 48) incorporating with it a summary of what he subsequently expanded in proof of his thesis. To Colebrooke's account of the Tirtha[.n]karas reverenced by the Jainas, but little has been added since its publication in the ninth volume of the _Asiatic Researches_; and as these are the centre of their worship, always represented in their temples, and surrounded by attendant figures,--I have ventured to add a somewhat fuller account of them and a summary of the general mythology of the sect, which may be useful to the archaeologist and the student of their iconography. Edinburgh, April 1903. J. BURGESS. CONTENTS. THE INDIAN SECT OF THE JAINAS, by Dr. J. G. BUEHLER. Appendix:--Epigraphic testimony to the continuity of the Jaina tradition SKETCH OF JAINA MYTHOLOGY, by J. BURGESS. THE INDIAN SECT OF THE JAINAS. The _Jaina_ sect is a religious society of modern India, at variance to Brahmanism, and possesses undoubted claims on the interest of all friends of Indian history. This claim is based partly on the peculiarities of their doctrines and customs, which present several resemblances to those of Buddhism, but, above all, on the fact that it was founded in the same period as the latter. Larger and smaller communities of _Jainas_ or _Arhata_,--that is followers of the prophet, who is generally called simply the _Jina_--'the conqueror of the world',--or the _Arhat_--'the holy one',--are to be found in almost every important Indian town, particularly among the merchant class. In some provinces of the West and North-west, in Gujarat, Rajputana, and the Panjab, as also in the Dravidian districts in the south,--especially in Kanara,--they are numerous; and, owing to the influence of their wealth, they take a prominent place. They do not, however, present a compact mass, but are divided into two rival branches--the _Digambara_ and _['S]vetambara_ [Footnote: In notes on the Jainas, one often finds the view expressed, that the _Digambaras_ belong only to the south, and the _['S]vetambaras_ to the north. This is by no means the case. The former in the Panjab, in eastern Rajputana and in the North West Provinces, are just as numerous, if not more so, than the latter, and also appear here and there in western Rajputana and Gujarat: see _Indian Antiquary_, vol. VII, p. 28
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