1. Numbers and distribution.

Jain.—The total number of Jains in the Central Provinces in 1911 was 71,000 persons. They nearly all belong to the Bania caste, and are engaged in moneylending and trade like other Banias. They reside principally in the Vindhyan Districts, Saugor, Damoh and Jubbulpore, and in the principal towns of the Nāgpur country and Berār.

2. The Jain religion. Its connection with Buddhism.

The Jain tenets present marked features of resemblance to Buddhism, and it was for some time held that Jainism was merely a later offshoot from that religion. The more generally accepted view now, however, is that the Jīna or prophet of the Jains was a real historical personage, who lived in the sixth century B.C., being a contemporary of Gautama, the Buddha. Vardhamāna, as he was commonly called, is said to have been the younger son of a small chieftain in the province of Videha or Tirhūt. Like Sakya-Muni the Buddha or enlightened, Vardhamāna became an ascetic, and after twelve years of a wandering life he appeared as a prophet, proclaiming a modification of the doctrine of his own teacher Pārsva or Pārasnāth. From this time he was known as Mahāvīra, the great hero, the same name which in its familiar form of Mahābīr is applied to the god Hanumān. The title of Jīna or victorious, from which the Jains take their name, was subsequently conferred on him, his sect at its first institution being called Nirgrantha or ascetic. There are very close resemblances in the traditions concerning the lives of Vardhamāna and Gautama or Buddha. Both were of royal birth; the same names recur among their relatives and disciples; and they lived and preached in the same part of the country, Bihār and Tirhūt.1 Vardhamāna is said to have died during Buddha’s lifetime, the date of the latter’s death being about 480 B.C.2 Their doctrines also, with some important differences, present, on the whole, a close resemblance. Like the Buddhists, the Jains claim to have been patronised by the Maurya princes. While Asoka was mainly instrumental in the propagation of Buddhism over India, his grandfather Chandragupta is stated to have been a Jain, and his grandson Sampadi also figures in Jain tradition. A district which is a holy land for one is almost always a holy land for the other, and their sacred places adjoin each other in Bihār, in the peninsula of Gujarāt, on Mount Abu in Rājputāna and elsewhere.3 The earliest of the Jain books belongs to the sixth century A.D., the existence of the Nirgrantha sect in Buddha’s lifetime being proved by the Cingalese books of the Buddhists, and by references to it in the inscriptions of Asoka and others.4 While then M. Barth’s theory that Jainism was simply a later sect of Buddhism has been discarded by subsequent scholars, it seems likely that several of the details of Vardhamāna’s life now recorded in the Jain books are not really authentic, but were taken from that of Buddha with necessary alterations, when the true facts about their own prophet had been irrevocably lost.

3. The Jain tenets. The Tirthakars.

Like the Buddhists, the Jains recognise no creator of the world, and suppose it to have existed from eternity. Similarly, they had originally no real god, but the Jīna or victor, like the Buddha or Enlightened One, was held to have been an ordinary mortal man, who by his own power had attained to omniscience and freedom, and out of pity for suffering mankind preached and declared the way of salvation which he had found.5 This doctrine, however, was too abstruse for the people, and in both cases the prophet himself gradually came to be deified. Further, in order perhaps to furnish objects of worship less distinctively human and to whom a larger share of the attributes of deity could be imputed, in both religions a succession of mythical predecessors of the prophet was gradually brought into existence. The Buddhists recognise twenty-five Buddhas or divine prophets, who appeared at long epochs of time and taught the same system one after another; and the Jains have twenty-four Tirthakārs or Tirthānkars, who similarly taught their religion. Of these only Vardhamāna, its real founder, who was the twenty-fourth, and possibly Pārsva or Pārasnāth, the twenty-third and the founder’s preceptor, are or may be historical. The other twenty-two Tirthakārs are purely mythical. The first, Rishaba, was born more than 100 billion years ago, as the son of a king of Ajodhya; he lived more than 8 million years, and was 500 bow-lengths in height. He therefore is as superhuman as any god, and his date takes us back almost to eternity. The others succeeded each other at shorter intervals of time, and show a progressive decline in stature and length of life. The images of the Tirthakārs are worshipped in the Jain temples like those of the Buddhas in Buddhist temples. As with Buddhism also, the main feature of Jain belief is the transmigration of souls, and each successive incarnation depends on the sum of good and bad actions or karman in the previous life. They hold also the primitive animistic doctrine that souls exist not only in animals and plants but in stones, lumps of earth, drops of water, fire and wind, and the human soul may pass even into these if its sins condemn it to such a fate.6

4. The transmigration of souls.

The aim which Jainism, like Buddhism, sets before its disciples is the escape from the endless round of successive existences, known as Samsāra, through the extinction of the karman or sum of actions. This is attained by complete subjection of the passions and destruction of all desires and appetites of the body and mind, that is, by the most rigid asceticism, as well as by observing all the moral rules prescribed by the religion. It was the Jīna or prophet who showed this way of escape, and hence he is called Tirthakār or ‘The Finder of the Ford,’ through the ocean of existence.7 But Jainism differs from Buddhism in that it holds that the soul, when finally emancipated, reaches a heaven and there continues for ever a separate intellectual existence, and is not absorbed into Nirvāna or a state of blessed nothingness.

5. Strict rules against taking life.

The moral precepts of the Jains are of the same type as those of Buddhism and Vaishnavite Hinduism, but of an excessive rigidity, at any rate in the case of the Yatis or Jatis, the ascetics. They promise not to hurt, not to speak untruths, to appropriate nothing to themselves without permission, to preserve chastity and to practise self-sacrifice. But these simple rules are extraordinarily expanded on the part of the Jains. Thus, concerning the oath not to hurt, on which the Jains lay most emphasis: it prohibits not only the intentional killing or injuring of living beings, plants or the souls existing in dead matter, but requires also the utmost carefulness in the whole manner of life, and a watchfulness also over all movements and functions of the body by which anything living might be hurt. It demands, finally, strict watch over the heart and tongue, and the avoidance of all thoughts and words which might lead to disputes and quarrels, and thereby do harm. In like manner the rule of sacrifice requires not only that the ascetic should have no houses or possessions, but he must also acquire a complete unconcern towards agreeable or disagreeable impressions, and destroy all feelings of attachment to anything living or dead.8 Similarly, death by voluntary starvation is prescribed for those ascetics who have reached the Kewalin or brightest stage of knowledge, as the means of entering their heaven. Owing to the late date of the Jain scriptures, any or all of its doctrines may have been adopted from Buddhism between the commencement of the two religions and the time when they were compiled. The Jains did not definitely abolish caste, and hence escaped the persecution to which Buddhism was subjected during the period of its decline from the fifth or sixth century A.D. On account of this trouble many Buddhists became Jains, and hence a further fusion of the doctrines of the rival sects may have ensued. The Digambara sect of Jains agree with the Buddhists in holding that women cannot attain Nirvāna or heaven, while the Swetambara sect say that they can, and also admit women as nuns into the ascetic order. The Jain scripture, the Yogashāstra, speaks of women as the lamps that burn on the road that leads to the gates of hell.

6. Jain sects.

The Jains are divided into the above two principal sects, the Digambara and the Swetambara. The Digambara are the more numerous and the stricter sect. According to their tenets death by voluntary starvation is necessary for ascetics who would attain heaven, though of course the rule is not now observed. The name Digambara signifies 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 Pārasnāth, the twenty-third Tirthakār, wore clothes, while Mahāvīra 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 Channāgri 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 Srāvakas 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 which to strain his drinking-water to the same end; and a broom made of cotton threads or peacock feathers to sweep the ground before him as he walks, so that his foot may not crush any living thing. The duty of the Yati is to read and explain the sacred books to the Srāvakas morning and evening, such functions being known as Sandhya. His food consists of all kinds of grain, vegetables and fruit produced above the earth; but no roots such as yams or onions. Milk and ghī are permitted, but butter and honey are prohibited. Some strict Yatis drink no water but what has been first boiled, lest they should inadvertently destroy any insect, it being less criminal to boil them than to destroy them in the drinker’s stomach. A Yati having renounced the world and all civil duties can have no family, nor does he perform any office of mourning or rejoicing.9 A Yati was directed to travel about begging and preaching for eight months in the year, and during the four rainy months to reside in some village or town and observe a fast. The rules of conduct to be observed by him were extremely strict, as has already been seen. Those who observed them successfully were believed to acquire miraculous powers. He who was a Siddh or victor, and had overcome his Karma or the sum of his human actions and affections, could read the thoughts of others and foretell the future. He who had attained Kewalgyan, or the state of perfect knowledge which preceded the emancipation of the soul and its absorption into paradise, was a god on earth, and even the gods worshipped him. Wherever he went all plants burst into flower and brought forth fruit, whether it was their season or not. In his presence no animal bore enmity to another or tried to kill it, but all animals lived peaceably together. This was the state attained to by each Tirthakār during his last sojourn on earth. The number of Jain ascetics seems now to be less than formerly and they are not often met with, at least in the Central Provinces. They do not usually perform the function of temple priest.

8. Jain subcastes of Banias.

Practically all the Jains in the Central Provinces are of the Bania caste. There is a small subcaste of Jain Kalārs, but these are said to have gone back to Hinduism.10 Of the Bania subcastes who are Jains the principal are the Parwār, Golapūrab, Oswāl and Saitwāl. Saraogi, the name for a Jain layman, and Charnāgar, a sect of Jains, are also returned as subcastes of Jain Banias. Other important subcastes of Banias, as the Agarwāl and Maheshri, have a Jain section. Nearly all Banias belong to the Digambara sect, but the Oswāl are Swetambaras. They are said to have been originally Rājpūts of Os or Osnagar in Rājputāna, and while they were yet Rājpūts a Swetambara ascetic sucked the poison from the wound of an Oswāl boy whom a snake had bitten, and this induced the community to join the Swetambara sect of the Jains.11

9. Rules and customs of the laity.

The Jain laity are known as Shrāwak or Saraogi, learners. There is comparatively little to distinguish them from their Hindu brethren. Their principal tenet is to avoid the destruction of all animal, including insect life, but the Hindu Banias are practically all Vaishnavas, and observe almost the same tenderness for animal life as the Jains. The Jains are distinguished by their separate temples and method of worship, and they do not recognise the authority of the Vedas nor revere the lingam of Siva. Consequently they do not use the Hindu sacred texts at their weddings, but repeat some verses from their own scriptures. These weddings are said to be more in the nature of a civil contract than of a religious ceremony. The bride and bridegroom walk seven times round the sacred post and are then seated on a platform and promise to observe certain rules of conduct towards each other and avoid offences. It is said that formerly a Jain bride was locked up in a temple for the first night and considered to be the bride of the god. But as scandals arose from this custom, she is now only locked up for a minute or two and then let out again. Jain boys are invested with the sacred thread on the occasion of their weddings or at twenty-one or twenty-two if they are still unmarried at that age. The thread is renewed annually on the day before the full moon of Bhādon (August), after a ten days’ fast in honour of Anānt Nāth Tirthakār. The thread is made by the Jain priests of tree cotton and has three knots. At their funerals the Jains do not shave the moustaches off as a rule, and they never shave the choti or scalp-lock, which they wear like Hindus. They give a feast to the caste-fellows and distribute money in charity, but do not perform the Hindu shrāddh or offering of sacrificial cakes to the dead. The Agarwāl and Khandelwāl Jains, however, invoke the spirits of their ancestors at weddings. Traces of an old hostility between Jains and Hindus survive in the Hindu saying that one should not take refuge in a Jain temple, even to escape from a mad elephant; and in the rule that a Jain beggar will not take alms from a Hindu unless he can perform some service in return, though it may not equal the value of the alms.

10. Connection with Hinduism.

In other respects the Jains closely resemble the Hindus. Brāhmans are often employed at their weddings, they reverence the cow, worship sometimes in Hindu temples, go on pilgrimages to the Hindu sacred places, and follow the Hindu law of inheritance. The Agarwāl Bania Jains and Hindus will take food cooked with water together and intermarry in Bundelkhand, although it is doubtful whether they do this in the Central Provinces. In such a case each party pays a fine to the Jain temple fund. In respect of caste distinctions the Jains are now scarcely less strict than the Hindus. The different Jain subcastes of Banias coming from Bundelkhand will take food together as a rule, and those from Marwār will do the same. The Khandelwāl and Oswāl Jain Banias will take food cooked with water together when it has been cooked by an old woman past the age of child-bearing, but not that cooked by a young woman. The spread of education has awakened an increased interest among the Jains in their scriptures and the tenets of their religion, and it is quite likely that the tendency to conform to Hinduism in caste matters and ceremonies may receive a check on this account.12

11. Temple and car festival.

The Jains display great zeal in the construction of temples in which the images of the Tirthakārs are enshrined. The temples are commonly of the same fashion as those of the Hindus, with a short, roughly conical spire tapering to a point at the apex, but they are frequently adorned with rich carved stone and woodwork. There are fine collections of temples at Muktagiri in Betūl, Kundalpur in Damoh, and at Mount Abu, Girnar, the hill of Parasnāth in Chota Nāgpur, and other places in India. The best Jain temples are often found in very remote spots, and it is suggested that they were built at times when the Jains had to hide in such places to avoid Hindu persecution. And wherever a community of Jain merchants of any size has been settled for a generation or more several fine temples will probably be found. A Jain Bania who has grown rich considers the building of one or more temples to be the best 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 Tirthakārs. 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 Tirthakārs.

In the temples are placed the images of Tirthakārs, 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 Tirthakārs found in temples are Rishab Deva, the first; Anantnāth, the fourteenth; Santnāth, the sixteenth; Nemnāth, the twenty-second; Pārasnāth, the twenty-third; and Vardhamāna or Mahāvīra, the twenty-fourth.13 As already stated only Mahāvīra and perhaps Parasnāth, his preceptor, were real historical personages, and the remainder are mythical. It is noticeable that to each of the Tirthakārs is attached a symbol, usually in the shape of an animal, and also a tree, apparently that tree under which the Tirthakār is held to have been seated at the time that he obtained release from the body. And these animals and trees are in most cases those which are also revered and held sacred by the Hindus. Thus the sacred animal of Rishab Deva is the bull, and his tree the banyan; that of Anantnāth is the falcon or bear, and his tree the holy Asoka;14 that of Santnāth is the black-buck or Indian antelope, and his tree the tun or cedar;15 the symbol of Nemnāth is the conch shell (sacred to Vishnu), but his tree, the vetasa, is not known; the animal of Pārasnāth is the serpent or cobra and his tree the dhātaki;16 and the animal of Mahāvīra is the lion or tiger and his tree the teak tree. Among the symbols of the other Tirthakārs are the elephant, horse, rhinoceros, boar, ape, the Brāhmani duck, the moon, the pīpal tree, the lotus and the swastik figure; and among their trees the mango, the jāmun17 and the champak.18 Most of these animals and trees are sacred to the Hindus, and the elephant, boar, ape, cobra and tiger were formerly worshipped themselves, and are now attached to the principal Hindu gods. Similarly the asoka, pīpal, banyan and mango trees are sacred, and also the Brāhmani duck and the swastik sign. It cannot be supposed that the Tirthakārs simply represent the deified anthropomorphic emanations from these animals, because the object of Vardhamāna’s preaching was perhaps like that of Buddha to do away with the promiscuous polytheism of the Hindu religion. But nevertheless the association of the sacred animals and trees with the Tirthakārs furnished a strong connecting link between them and the Hindu gods, and considerably lessens the opposition between the two systems of worship. The god Indra is also frequently found sculptured as an attendant guardian in the Jain temples. The fourteenth Tirthakār, Anantnāth, is especially revered by the people because he is identified with Gautama Buddha.

13. Religious observances.

The priest of a Jain temple is not usually a Yati or ascetic, but an ordinary member of the community. He receives no remuneration and carries on his business at the same time. He must know the Jain scriptures, and makes recitations from them when the worshippers are assembled. The Jain will ordinarily visit a temple and see the god every morning before taking his food, and his wife often goes with him. If there is no temple in their own town or village they will go to another, provided that it is within a practicable distance. The offerings made at the temple consist of rice, almonds, cocoanuts, betel-leaves, areca, dates, cardamoms, cloves and similar articles. These are appropriated by the Hindu Māli or gardener, who is the menial servant employed to keep the temple and enclosures clean. The Jain will not take back or consume himself anything which has been offered to the god. Offerings of money are also made, and these go into the bhandār or fund for maintenance of the temple. The Jains observe fasts for the last week before the new moon in the months of Phāgun (February), Asārh (June) and Kārtik (October). They also fast on the second, fifth, eighth, eleventh and fourteenth days in each fortnight of the four months of the rains from Asārh to Kārtik, this being in lieu of the more rigorous fast of the ascetics during the rains. On these days they eat only once, and do not eat any green vegetables. After the week’s fast at the end of Kārtik, at the commencement of the month of Aghan, the Jains begin to eat all green vegetables.

14. Tenderness for animal life.

The great regard for animal life is the most marked feature of the Jain religion among the laity as well as the clergy. The former do not go to such extremes as the latter, but make it a practice not to eat food after sunset or before sunrise, owing to the danger of swallowing insects. Now that their beliefs are becoming more rational, however, and the irksome nature of this rule is felt, they sometimes place a lamp with a sieve over it to produce rays of light, and consider that this serves as a substitute for the sun. Formerly they maintained animal hospitals in which all kinds of animals and reptiles, including monkeys, poultry and other birds were kept and fed, and any which had broken a limb or sustained other injuries were admitted and treated. These were known as pinjrapol or places of protection.19 A similar institution was named jivuti, and consisted of a small domed building with a hole at the top large enough for a man to creep in, and here weevils and other insects which the Jains might find in their food were kept and provided with grain.20 In Rājputāna, where rich Jains probably had much influence, considerable deference was paid to their objections to the death of any living thing. Thus a Mewār edict of A.D. 1693 directed that no one might carry animals for slaughter past their temples or houses. Any man or animal led past a Jain house for the purpose of being killed was thereby saved and set at liberty. Traitors, robbers or escaped prisoners who fled for sanctuary to the dwelling of a Jain Yati or ascetic could not be seized there by the officers of the court. And during the four rainy months, when insects were most common, the potter’s wheel and Teli’s oil-press might not be worked on account of the number of insects which would be destroyed by them.21

15. Social condition of the Jains.

As they are nearly all of the Bania caste the Jains are usually prosperous, and considering its small size, the standard of wealth in the community is probably very high for India, the total number of Jains in the country being about half a million. Beggars are rare, and, like the Pārsis and Europeans, the Jains feeling themselves a small isolated body in the midst of a large alien population, have a special tenderness for their poorer members, and help them in more than the ordinary degree. Most of the Jain Banias are grain-dealers and moneylenders like other Banias. Cultivation is prohibited by their religion, owing to the destruction of animal life which it involves, but in Saugor, and also in the north of India, many of them have now taken to it, and some plough with their own hands. Mr. Marten notes22 that the Jains are beginning to put their wealth to a more practical purpose than the lavish erection and adornment of temples. Schools and boarding-houses for boys and girls of their religion are being opened, and they subscribe liberally for the building of medical institutions. It may be hoped that this movement will continue and gather strength, both for the advantage of the Jains themselves and the country generally.

1. Life of Kabīr.

Kabīrpanthi Sect.—A well-known religious sect founded by the reformer Kabīr, who flourished in the fifteenth century, and is called by Dr. Hunter the Luther of India. The sect has now split into two branches, the headquarters of one of these being at Benāres, and of the other at Kawardha, or Dāmākheda in Raipur. Bishop Westcott gives the date of Kabīr’s life as A.D. 1440—1518, while Mr. Crooke states that he flourished between 1488 and 1512. Numerous legends are now told about him; thus, according to one of these, he was the son of a virgin Brāhman widow, who had been taken at her request to see the great reformer Rāmānand. He, unaware of her condition, saluted her with the benediction which he thought acceptable to all women, and wished her the conception of a son. His words could not be recalled, and the widow conceived, but, in order to escape the disgrace which would attach to her, exposed the child, who was Kabīr. He was found by a Julāha or Muhammadan weaver and his wife, and brought up by them. The object of this story is probably to connect Kabīr with Rāmānand as his successor in reformation and spiritual heir; because the Rāmānandis are an orthodox Vaishnava sect, while the Kabīrpanthis, if they adhered to all Kabīr’s preaching, must be considered as quite outside the pale of Hinduism. To make out that Kabīr came into the world by Rāmānand’s act provides him at any rate with an orthodox spiritual lineage. For the same reason1 the date of Kabīr’s birth is sometimes advanced as early as 1398 in order to bring it within the period of Rāmānand’s lifetime (circa 1300–1400). Another story is that the deity took mortal shape as a child without birth, and was found by a newly-married weaver’s wife lying in a lotus flower on a tank, like Moses in the bulrushes. Bishop Westcott thus describes the event: “A feeling of thirst overcame Nīma, the newly-wedded wife of Nīru, the weaver, as after the marriage ceremony she was making her way to her husband’s house. She approached the tank, but was much afraid when she there beheld the child. She thought in her heart, ‘This is probably the living evidence of the shame of some virgin widow.’ Nīru suggested that they might take the child to their house, but Nīma at first demurred, thinking that such action might give rise to scandal. Women would ask, ‘Who is the mother of a child so beautiful that its eyes are like the lotus?’ However, laying aside all fears, they took pity on the child. On approaching the house they were welcomed with the songs of women, but when the women saw the child dark thoughts arose in their heads, and they began to ask, ‘How has she got this child?’ Nīma replied that she had got the child without giving birth to it, and the women then refrained from asking further questions.” It is at any rate a point generally agreed on that Kabīr was brought up in the house of a Muhammadan weaver. It is said that he became the chela or disciple of Rāmānand, but this cannot be true, as Rāmānand was dead before his birth. It seems probable that he was married, and had two children named Kamāl and Kamāli. Bishop Westcott states2 that the Kabīr Kasauti explains the story of his supposed marriage by the fact that he had a girl disciple named Loi, a foundling brought up by a holy man; she followed his precepts, and coming to Benāres, passed her time in the service of the saints. Afterwards Kabīr raised two children from the dead and gave them to Loi to bring up, and the ignorant suppose that these were his wife and children. Such a statement would appear to indicate that Kabīr was really married, but after his sect had become important, this fact was felt to be a blot on his claim to be a divine prophet, and so was explained away in the above fashion.

The plain speaking of Kabīr and his general disregard for religious conventions excited the enmity of both Hindus and Muhammadans, and he was accused before the Emperor Sikandar Lodi, by whose orders various attempts were made to kill him; but he was miraculously preserved in each case, until at last the Emperor acknowledged his divine character, asked his forgiveness, and expressed his willingness to undergo any punishment that he might name. To this Kabīr replied that a man should sow flowers for those who had sown him thorns. Bishop Westcott continues:—“All accounts agree that the earthly life of Kabīr came to a close at Maghar, in the District of Gorakhpur. Tradition relates that Kabīr died in extreme old age, when his body had become infirm and his hands were no longer able to produce the music with which he had in younger days celebrated the praises of Rāma.

“A difficulty arose with regard to the disposal of his body after death. The Muhammadans desired to bury it and the Hindus to cremate it. As the rival parties discussed the question with growing warmth Kabīr himself appeared and bade them raise the cloth in which the body lay enshrouded. They did as he commanded, and lo! beneath the cloth there lay but a heap of flowers. Of these flowers the Hindus removed half and burnt them at Benāres, while what remained were buried at Maghar by the Muhammadans.”

2. Kabīr’s teachings.

The religion preached by Kabīr was of a lofty character. He rejected the divine inspiration of the Vedas and the whole Hindu mythology. He taught that there was no virtue in outward observances such as shaving the head, ceremonial purity and impurity, and circumcision among Muhammadans. He condemned the worship of idols and the use of sect-marks and religious amulets, but in all ordinary matters allowed his followers to conform to usage in order to avoid giving offence. He abolished distinctions of caste. He enjoined a virtuous life, just conduct and kindly behaviour and much meditation on the virtues of God. He also condemned the love of money and gain. In fact, in many respects his creed resembles Christianity, just as the life of Kabīr contains one or two episodes parallel to that of Christ. He prescribed obedience to the Guru or spiritual preceptor in all matters of faith and morals. His religion appears to have been somewhat of a pantheistic character and his idea of the deity rather vague. But he considered that the divine essence was present in all human beings, and apparently that those who freed themselves from sin and the trammels of worldly desires would ultimately be absorbed into the godhead. It does not seem that Kabīr made any exact pronouncement on the doctrine of the transmigration of souls and re-birth, but as he laid great stress on avoiding the destruction of any animal life, a precept which is to some extent the outcome of the belief in transmigration, he may have concurred in this tenet. Some Kabīrpanthis, however, have discarded transmigration. Bishop Westcott states that they do believe in the re-birth of the soul after an intervening period of reward or punishment, but always apparently in a human body.

3. His sayings

He would seem never to have promulgated any definite account of his own religion, nor did he write anything himself. He uttered a large number of Sākhis or apothegms which were recorded by his disciples in the Bījak, Sukhanidhān and other works, and are very well known and often quoted by Kabīrpanthis and others. The influence of Kabīr extended beyond his own sect. Nānak, the founder of the Nānakpanthis and Sikhs, was indebted to Kabīr for most of his doctrine, and the Adi-Granth or first sacred book of the Sikhs is largely compiled from his sayings. Other sects such as the Dādupanthis also owe much to him. A small selection of his sayings from those recorded by Bishop Westcott may be given in illustration of their character:

1. Adding cowrie to cowrie he brings together lakhs and crores.

At the time of his departure he gets nothing at all, even his loin-cloth is plucked away.

2. Fire does not burn it, the wind does not carry it away, no thief comes near it; collect the wealth of the name of Rāma, that wealth is never lost.

3. By force and love circumcision is made, I shall not agree to it, O brother. If God will make me a Turk by Him will I be circumcised; if a man becomes a Turk by being circumcised what shall be done with a woman? She must remain a Hindu.

4. The rosaries are of wood, the gods are of stone, the Ganges and Jumna are water. Rāma and Krishna are dead. The four Vedas are fictitious stories.

5. If by worshipping stones one can find God, I shall worship a mountain; better than these stones (idols) are the stones of the flour-mill with which men grind their corn.

6. If by immersion in the water salvation be obtained, the frogs bathe continually. As the frogs so are these men, again and again they fall into the womb.

7. As long as the sun does not rise the stars sparkle; so long as perfect knowledge of God is not obtained, men practise rites and ceremonies.

8. Brahma is dead with Siva who lived in Kāshi; the immortals are dead. In Mathura, Krishna, the cowherd, died. The ten incarnations (of Vishnu) are dead. Machhandranāth, Gorakhnāth, Dattātreya and Vyās are no longer living. Kabīr cries with a loud voice, All these have fallen into the slip-knot of death.

9. While dwelling in the womb there is no clan nor caste; from the seed of Brahm the whole of creation is made.

Whose art thou the Brāhman? Whose am I the Sūdra? Whose blood am I? Whose milk art thou?

Kabīr says, ‘Who reflects on Brahm, he by me is made a Brāhman.’

10. To be truthful is best of all if the heart be truthful. A man may speak as much as he likes; but there is no pleasure apart from truthfulness.

11. If by wandering about naked union with Hari be obtained; then every deer of the forest will attain to God. If by shaving the head perfection is achieved, the sheep is saved, no one is lost.

If salvation is got by celibacy, a eunuch should be the first saved. Kabīr says, ‘Hear, O Man and Brother; without the name of Rāma no one has obtained salvation.’

The resemblance of some of the above ideas to the teaching of the Gospels is striking, and, as has been seen, the story of Kabīr’s birth might have been borrowed from the Bible, while the Kabīrpanthi Chauka or religious service has one or two features in common with Christianity. These facts raise a probability, at any rate, that Kabīr or his disciples had some acquaintance with the Bible or with the teaching of Christian missionaries. If such a supposition were correct, it would follow that Christianity had influenced the religious thought of India to a greater extent than is generally supposed. Because, as has been seen, the Nānakpanthi and Sikh sects are mainly based on the teaching of Kabīr. Another interesting though accidental resemblance is that the religion of Kabīr was handed down in the form of isolated texts and sayings like the Logia of Jesus, and was first reduced to writing in a connected form by his disciples. The fact that Kabīr called the deity by the name of Rāma apparently does not imply that he ascribed a unique and sole divinity to the hero king of Ajodhia. He had to have some name which might convey a definite image or conception to his uneducated followers, and may have simply adopted that which was best known and most revered by them.

4. The Kabīrpanthi Sect in the Central Provinces.

The two principal headquarters of the Kabīrpanthi sect are at Benaires and at Kawardha, the capital of the State of that name, or Dāmākheda in the Raipur District. These appear to be practically independent of each other, the head Mahants exercising separate jurisdiction over members of the sect who acknowledge their authority. The Benāres branch of the sect is known as Bāp (father) and the Kawardha branch as Mai (mother). In 1901 out of 850,000 Kabīrpanthis in India 500,000 belonged to the Central Provinces. The following account of the practices of the sect in the Province is partly compiled from local information, and it differs in some minor, though not in essential, points from that given by Bishop Westcott. The Benāres church is called the Kabīrchaura Math and the Kawardha one the Dharam Dās Math.

One of the converts to Kabīr’s teaching was Dharam Dās, a Kasaundhan Bania, who distributed the whole of his wealth, eighteen lakhs of rupees, in charity at his master’s bidding and became a mendicant. In reward for this Kabīr promised him that his family should endure for forty-two generations. The Mahants of Kawardha claim to be the direct descendants of Dharam Dās. They marry among Kasaundhan Banias, and their sons are initiated and succeed them. The present Mahants Dayāram and Ugranām are twelfth and thirteenth in descent from Dharam Dās. Kabīr not only promised that there should be forty-two Mahants, but gave the names of each of them, so that the names of all future Mahants are known.3 Ugranām was born of a Marār woman, and, though acclaimed as the successor of his father, was challenged by Dhīrajnām, whose parentage was legitimate. Their dispute led to a case in the Bombay High Court, which was decided in favour of Dhīrajnām, and he accordingly occupied the seat at Kawardha. Dayārām is his successor. But Dhīrajnām was unpopular, and little attention was paid to him. Ugranām lives at Dāmākheda, near Simga,4 and enjoys the real homage of the followers of the sect, who say that Dhīraj was the official Mahant but Ugra the people’s Mahant. Of the previous Mahants, four are buried at Kawardha, two at Kudarmāl in Bilāspur, the site of a Kabīrpanthi fair, and two at Mandla. Under the head Mahant are a number of subordinate Mahants or Gurus, each of whom has jurisdiction over the members of the sect in a certain area. The Guru pays so much a year to the head Mahant for his letter of jurisdiction and takes all the offerings himself. These subordinate Mahants may be celibate or married, and about two-thirds of them are married. A dissenting branch called Nadiapanthi has now arisen in Raipur, all of whom are celibate. The Mahants have a high peaked cap somewhat of the shape of a mitre, a long sleeveless white robe, a chauri or whisk, chauba or silver stick, and a staff called kuari or aska. It is said that on one occasion there was a very high flood at Puri and the sea threatened to submerge Jagannāth’s temple, but Kabīr planted a stick in the sand and said, ‘Come thus far and no further,’ and the flood was stayed. In memory of this the Mahants carry the crutched staff, which also serves as a means of support. When officiating they wear a small embroidered cap. Each Mahant has a Diwān or assistant, and he travels about his charge during the open season, visiting the members of the sect. A Mahant should not annoy any one by begging, but rather than do so should remain hungry. He must not touch any flesh, fish or liquor. And if any living thing is hungry he should give it of his own food.

5. The religious service.

A Kabīrpanthi religious service is called Chauka, the name given to the space marked out for it with lines of wheat-flour, 5 or 7½ yards square.5 In the centre is made a pattern of nine lotus flowers to represent the sun, moon and seven planets, and over this a bunch of real flowers is laid. At one corner is a small hollow pillar of dough serving as a candle-stick, in which a stick covered with cotton-wool burns as a lamp, being fed with butter. The Mahant sits at one end and the worshippers sit round. Bhajans or religious songs are sung to the music of cymbals by one or two, and the others repeat the name of Kabīr counting on their kanthi or necklace of beads. The Mahant lights a piece of camphor and waves it backwards and forwards in a dish. This is called Arti, a Hindu rite. He then breaks a cocoanut on a stone, a thing which only a Mahant may do. The flesh of the cocoanut is cut up and distributed to the worshippers with betel-leaf and sugar. Each receives it on his knees, taking the greatest care that none fall on the ground. If any of the cocoanut remain, it is kept by the Mahant for another service. The Hindus think that the cocoanut is a substitute for a human head. It is supposed to have been created by Viswāmitra and the būch or tuft of fibre at the end represents the hair. The Kabīrpanthis will not eat any part of a cocoanut from other Hindus from which this tuft has been removed, as they fear that it may have been broken off in the name of some god or spirit. Once the būch is removed the cocoanut is not an acceptable offering, as its likeness to a human head is considered to be destroyed. After this the Mahant gives an address and an interval occurs. Some little time afterwards the worshippers reassemble. Meanwhile, a servant has taken the dough candle-stick and broken it up, mixing it with fragments of the cocoanut, butter and more flour. It is then brought to the Mahant, who makes it into little puris or wafers. The Mahant has also a number of betel-leaves known as parwāna or message, which have been blessed by the head guru at Kawardha or Dāmākheda. These are cut up into small pieces for delivery to each disciple and are supposed to represent the body of Kabīr. He has also brought Charan Amrita or Nectar of the Feet, consisting of water in which the feet of the head guru have been washed. This is mixed with fine earth and made up into pills. The worshippers reassemble, any who may feel unworthy absenting themselves, and each receives from the Mahant, with one hand folded beneath the other, a wafer of the dough, a piece of the parwāna or betel-leaf, and a pill of the foot-nectar. After partaking of the sacred food they cleanse their hands, and the proceedings conclude with a substantial meal defrayed either by subscription or by a well-to-do member. Bishop Westcott states that the parwāna or betel-leaf is held to represent Kabīr’s body, and the Kabīrpanthis say that the flame of the candle is the life or spirit of Kabīr, so that the dough of the candle-stick might also be taken to symbolise his body. The cocoanut eaten at the preliminary service is undoubtedly offered by Hindus as a substitute for a human body, though the Kabīrpanthis may now disclaim this idea. And the foot-nectar of the guru might be looked upon as a substitute for the blood of Kabīr.

6. Initiation.

The initiation of a proselyte is conducted at a similar service, and he is given cocoanut and betel-leaf. He solemnly vows to observe the rules of the sect, and the Mahant whispers a text into his ear and hangs a necklace of wooden beads of the wood of the tulsi or basil round his neck. This kanthi or necklace is the mark of the Kabīrpanthi, but if lost, it can be replaced by any other necklace, not necessarily of tulsi. One man was observed with a necklace of pink beads bought at Allahābād. Sometimes only a single tulsi bead is worn on a string. The convert is also warned against eating the fruit of the gūlar6 fig-tree, as these small figs are always full of insects. Kabīr condemned sect-marks, but many Kabīrpanthis now have them, the mark usually being a single broad streak of white sandalwood from the top of the forehead to the nose.

7. Funeral rites.

The Kabīrpanthis are usually buried. Formerly, the bodies of married people both male and female were buried inside the compound of the house, but this is now prohibited on sanitary grounds. A cloth is placed in the grave and the corpse laid on it and another cloth placed over it covering the face. Over the grave a little platform is made on which the Mahant and two or three other persons can sit. On the twenty-first day after the death, if possible, the Mahant should hold a service for the dead. The form of the service is that already described, the Mahant sitting on the grave and the chauka being made in front of it. He lays a cocoanut and flowers on the grave and lights the lamp, afterwards distributing the cocoanut. The Kabīrpanthis think that the soul of the dead person remains in the grave up to this time, but when the lamp is burnt the soul mingles with the flame, which is the soul of Kabīr, and is absorbed into the deity. When breaking a cocoanut over the grave of the dead the Kabīrpanthis say, ‘I am breaking the skull of Yama,’ because they think that the soul of a Kabīrpanthi is absorbed into the deity and therefore is not liable to be taken down to hell and judged by Chitragupta and punished by Yama. From this it would appear that some of them do not believe in the transmigration of souls.

8. Idol worship.

Ordinarily the Kabīrpanthis have no regular worship except on the occasion of a visit of the guru. But sometimes in the morning they fold their hands and say ‘Sat Sāhib,’ or the ‘True God,’ two or three times. They also clean a space with cowdung and place a lighted lamp on it and say ‘Jai Kabīr Ki,’ or ‘Victory to Kabīr.’ They conceive of the deity as consisting of light, and therefore it seems probable that, like the other Vaishnava sects, they really take him to be the Sun. Kabīr prohibited the worship of all idols and visible symbols, but as might be expected the illiterate Kabīrpanthis cannot adhere strictly to this. Some of them worship the Bījak, the principal sacred book of their sect. At Rudri near Dhamtari on the Mahānadi one of the Gurus is buried, and a religious fair is held there. Recently a platform has been made with a footprint of Kabīr marked on it, and this is venerated by the pilgrims. Similarly, Kudarmāl is held to contain the grave of Churāman, the first guru after Dharam Dās, and a religious fair is held here at which the Kabīrpanthis attend and venerate the grave. Dharam Dās himself is said to be buried at Puri, the site of Jagannāth’s temple, but it seems doubtful whether this story may not have been devised in order to give the Kabīrpanthis a valid reason for going on pilgrimage to Puri. Similarly, an arch and platform in the court of the temple of Rāma at Rāmtek is considered to belong to the Kabīrpanthis, though the Brāhmans of the temple say that the arch was really made by the daughter of a Sūrajvansi king of the locality in order to fasten her swing to it. Once in three years the Mahār Kabīrpanthis of Mandla make a sacrificial offering of a goat to Dulha Deo, the bridegroom god, and eat the flesh, burying the remains beneath the floor. On this occasion they also drink liquor. Other Kabīrpanthis venerate Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, and light a lamp and burn camphor in their names, but do not make idols of them. They will accept the cooked food offered to Vishnu as Satnārāyan and a piece of the cocoanut kernel offered to Devi, but not the offerings to any other deities. And a number even of illiterate Kabīrpanthis appear to abstain from any kind of idol-worship.

9. Statistics of the sect.

About 600,000 Kabīrpanthis were returned in the Central Provinces in 1911, this being equivalent to an increase of 19 per cent since the previous census. As this was less than the increase in the total population the sect appears to be stationary or declining in numbers. The weaving castes are usually Kabīrpanthis, because Kabīr was a weaver. The Brāhmans call it ‘The weaver’s religion.’ Of the Panka caste 84 per cent were returned as members of the sect, and this caste appears to be of sectarian formation, consisting of Pāns or Gāndas who have become Kabīrpanthis. Other weaving castes such as Balāhis, Koris, Koshtis and Mahārs belong to the sect in considerable numbers, and it is also largely professed by other low castes as the Telis or oilmen, of whom 16 per cent adhere to it, and by Dhobis and Chamārs; and by some castes from whom a Brāhman will take water, as the Ahīrs, Kurmis, Lodhis and Kāchhis. Though there seems little doubt that one of the principal aims of Kabīr’s preaching was the abolition of the social tyranny of the caste system, which is the most real and to the lower classes the most hateful and burdensome feature of Hinduism, yet as in the case of so many other reformers his crusade has failed, and a man who becomes a Kabīrpanthi does not cease to be a member of his caste or to conform to its observances. And a few Brāhmans who have been converted, though renounced by their own caste, have, it is said, been compensated by receiving high posts in the hierarchy of the sect. Formerly all members of the sect took food together at the conclusion of each Chauka or service conducted by a Mahant. But this is no longer the case, and presumably different Chaukas are now held for communities of different castes. Only on the 13th day of Bhādon (August), which was the birthday of Kabīr, as many Kabīrpanthis as can meet at the headquarters of the Guru take food together without distinction of caste in memory of their Founder’s doctrine. Otherwise the Kabīrpanthis of each caste make a separate group within it, but among the lower castes they take food and marry with members of the caste who are not Kabīrpanthis. These latter are commonly known as Saktāha, a term which in Chhattīsgarh signifies an eater of meat as opposed to a Kabīrpanthi who refrains from it. The Mahārs and Pankas permit intermarriage between Kabīrpanthi and Saktāha families, the wife in each case adopting the customs and beliefs of her husband. Kabīrpanthis also wear the choti or scalp-lock and shave the head for the death of a relative, in spite of Kabīr’s contempt of the custom. Still, the sect has in the past afforded to the uneducated classes a somewhat higher ideal of spiritual life than the chaotic medley of primitive superstitions and beliefs in witchcraft and devil worship, from which the Brāhmans, caring only for the recognition of their social supremacy, made no attempt to raise them.