salvation, and to
open its arms--not only to the noble Aryan, but also to the low-born
['S]udra and even to the alien, deeply despised in India, the Mlechcha.
[Footnote: In the stereotyped introductions to the sermons of Jina it is
always pointed out that they are addressed to the Aryan and non-Aryan.
Thus in the _Aupapatika Sutra_ Sec. 56. (Leumann) it runs as follows:
_tesi[.m] savvesi[.m] a[r.]iyamanariyana[.m] agilae dhammat[.m]
aikkhai_ "to all these, Aryans and non-Aryans, he taught the law
untiringly". In accordance with this principle, conversions of people of
low caste, such as gardeners, dyers, etc., are not uncommon even at the
present day. Muhammadans too, regarded as Mlechcha, are still received
among the Jaina communities. Some cases of the kind were communicated to
me in A[h.]madabad in the year 1876, as great triumphs of the Jainas.
Tales of the conversion of the emperor Akbar, through the patriarch
Hiravijaya (_Ind. Antiq._ Vol. XI, p. 256), and of the spread of the
Digambara sect in an island Jainabhadri, in the Indian Ocean (_Ind.
Ant._ Vol. VII, p. 28) and in Arabia, shew that the Jainas are familiar
with the idea of the conversion of non-Indians. Hiuen Tsiang's note on the
appearance of the Nirgrantha or Digambara in Kiapishi (Beal,
_Si-yu-ki_, Vol. I, p. 55), points apparently to the fact that they
had, in the North West at least, spread their missionary activity beyond
the borders of India.] As their doctrine, like Buddha's, is originally a
philosophical ethical system intended for ascetics, the disciples, like
the Buddhists, are, divided into ecclesiastics and laity. At the head
stands an order of ascetics, originally Nirgrantha "they, who are freed
from all bands," now usually called Yatis--"Ascetics", or Sadhus--"Holy",
which, among the ['S]vetambara also admits women, [Footnote: Even the
canonical works of the ['S]vetambara, as for example, the _Achara[.n]ga
(Sacred Books of the East_, Vol. XXII, p. 88-186) contain directions
for nuns. It seems, however, that they have never played such an important
part as in Buddhism. At the present time, the few female orders among the
['S]vetambara consist entirely of virgin widows, whose husbands have died
in childhood, before the beginning of their life together. It is not
necessary to look upon the admission of nuns among the ['S]vetambara as an
imitation of Buddhist teaching, as women were received into some of the
old Brahmanical orders; see my note to