JALAPA
270
JAMAICA
monastic Brahminism. Of the reputed founder of
Jainism we have but few iletails, antl most of these are
so like what we read of the beginnings of Buddhism
that one is strongly led to suspect that here at least
one is dealing with a variation of the Buddha-legend.
According to Jainist tradition, the founder lived in the
sixth century B. c, being either a contemporary or a
precursor of Budtlha. His family name was Jnatri-
putra (in Prakrit, Xattaputta), but, like Gotama, he
was honouretl with the laudatory names of Buddha,
the enlightened, Mahavira, the great hero, and Jina,
the conqueror. These last two epithets came to be
Hs distinctive titles, wliile the name Buddha was
associated almost exclusively with Gotama. Like
Buddha, Jina was the son of a local raja who held
sway over a small district in the neighbourhood of
Benares. While still a young man he felt the empti-
ness of a life of pleasure, and gave up his home and
princely station to become an ardent follower of the
Brahmin ascetics. If we may trust the Jainist scrip-
tures, he carried the principle of self-mortification to
the extent that he went about naked, unsheltered
from the sun, rain, and winds, and lived on the rudest
vegetarian fare, ]>nictising iiicredilile fasts. Accept-
ing the principle of the Hrahmin ascetics, that salva-
tion is by personal effort alone, he took the logical
step of rejecting as useless the Vetlas and the Vedic
rites. For this attitude towards the Brahmin tradi-
tions he was repudiated as a heretic. He gathered
eleven disciples around him, and went about preaching
his doctrine of salvation. Like Budtlha he made
many converts, whom he organized under a monastic
rule of life. Associated with them were many who
accepted his teaching in theory, but who in practice
stopped short of the monastic life of extreme asceticism.
These were the lay Jainists, who, like the lay Bud-
dhists, contributed to the support of the monks.
The Jainists seem never to have been so numerous as the Buddhists. Though they claim a membership of over a million lielievers, laity included, recent statis- tics of India show that their number is not greater than half a milHon. On the question of the propriety of going about naked, the Jainist monks have for ages been split into two sects. The White-Robed Sect, whose monks are clothed in white garments, is the more numerovis, flourishing chiefly in N. W. India. To this sect belong a few communities of Jainist nuns. The naked ascetics, forming the other sect, are strong- est in the South of India, but even here they have largely restrictetl the custom of nakedness to the time of eating. As the Buddhist creed is summed up in three words, Budilha, the Law, the Order, so the Jain- ist creed consists of the so-ealletl three jewels, Right Belief, Right Knowledge, Right Conduct. Right Be- lief embraces faith in Jina as the true teacher of salva- tion and the acceptance of the Jainist scriptures as his authoritative teaching. These scriptures are less ex- tensive, less varied, than the Buddhist, and, while resemliling the latter to a large degree, lay great stress on bodily mortification. The canon of the White- robed Sect consists of forty-five Agamas, or sacred texts, in the Prakrit tongue. Jacobi, who has trans- lated some of these texts in the " Sacred Books of the East ", is of the opinion that they cannot be older than 300 B. c. According to Jainist tradition, they were preceded by an ancient canon of fourteen so-called Purvas, which have totally disappeared. With the Jainist, " Right Knowledge" embraces the religious view of life together with the end of man, while " Right Conduct " is conrcriicd with the main ethical precepts and with the ascetic, nionastic system.
The Jainist, likr llic Buddhist and the pantheistic Brahmin, takes for granted I h<> doctrine of Karma and its implied rebirths. He, too, views every form of earthly, bodily existence as misery. Freedom from rebirth is thus the goal after which he aspires. But, while the pantheistic Brahmin and the primitive
Buddhist looked for the reahzation of the end in the
extinction of conscious, individual existence (absorp-
tion in Brahma, Nirvana), the Jainist has always ten-
aciously held to the primitive traditional belief in a
final abode of bliss, where the soul, liberated from the
necessity of rebirth on earth, enjoys forever a spirit-
ual, conscious existence. To attain this end, the
Jainist, like the Buddhist and the pantheistic Brah-
min, holds that the trailitional gods can aid but little.
The existence of the gods is not tlenied, but their
worship is held to be of no avail and is thus abandoned.
Salvation is to lie obtained by personal effort alone.
To reach the longed-for goal, it is necessary to purify
the soul of all that binds it to a bodily existence, so
that it shall aspire purely and solely after a spiritual
life in heaven. This is accomplished by the life of
severe mortification of which Jina set the example.
Twelve years of ascetic life as a Jainist monk and
eight rebirths are necessary to constitute the purga-
torial preparation for the Jainist heaven. Wlule the
Jains are not worshippers of the Hindu gods, they
erect imposing temples to Jina and other venerated
teachers. The images of these Jainist saints are
adorned with lights and flowers, and the faithful walk
around them while reciting sacred mantras. Jainist
worship is thus little more than a veneration of a few
saints and heroes of the past.
On its ethical side — the sphere of Right Conduct — Jainism is largely at one with Brahminism and Bud- dhism. There are, however, a few differences in the application of the principle of not killing. The sa- credness of all kinds of life implied in the doctrine of metempsychosis has been more scrupulously ob- served in practice by the Jain than by the Brahmin or the Buddhist. The Brahmin tolerates the slaughter of animals for food, to provide offerings for the sacri- fice, or to show hospitality to a guest; the Butldhist does not scruple to eat meat prepared for a banquet; but the Jain reprobates meat-footl without exception as involving the unlawful taking of life. For similar reasons the Jain does not content himself with strain- ing his drinking water and with remaining at home during the rainy season, when the ground is swarming with lower forms of life, but when he goes forth, he wears a veil before his mouth, antl carries a liroom with which he sweeps the ground before him to avoid destruction of insect life. The Jainist ascetic allows himself to lie bitten by gnats and mosquitoes rather than risk their tlestruction by brushing them away. Hosjjitals for animals have been a prominent feature of Jainist benevolence, bordering at times on absurd- ity. For example, in 1S.'54 there existed in Kutch a temple hospital which supported 5000 rats. With all this scrupulous regard for animal life, the Jain differs from the Buddhist in his view of the lawfulness of religious suicide. According to Jainist ethics a monk who has practised twelve years of severe asceticism, or who has found after long trial that he cannot keep his lower nature in control, may hasten his end by self- destruction.
.Iacobi, The Jaina Stdras, vols. XXII and XLV of the Sacred Books of the East: Hopkins, The Reliqions of India (Bostoa, 1895); Hardy, Der Buddhismus narh Mm-n Paliuerken (Mtin- ster, 1890); Monier Williams, Buddhism (London, 1889); Bahth, The Religions of India (London, 1891).
Charles F. Aiken.
Jalapa. See Vera Cruz, Diocese of.
Jamaica, the largest of the British West Indian islands, is situated in the Caribbean Sea, between latitude 17° 43' and 18° 32' N., and longitude 76° 11' and 7.S° .iO' \V. It is 90 miles south of Cub.i, 100 -^vest of Haiti, and .VA miles from Colon. The nearest point of the continent of America is about 400 miles south- west of the island. The name Jamaica is said to be derived from Arawak words denoting water and wood, signifying a fertile land. The island is 144 miles long, and from 21 1 to 49 miles broad. Its area is
