In the present day both Dig-ambara and S´vet[=a]mbara Jainas are divided into two classes, corresponding to clergy and laity. When the two sects increased in numbers, all, of course, could not be ascetics. Some were compelled to engage in secular pursuits, and many developed industrious and business-like habits. Hence it happened that a large number became prosperous merchants and traders.
All laymen[12] among the Jainas are called S´r[=a]vakas, "hearers or disciples," while the Yatis,[13] or "self-restraining ascetics," who constitute the only other division of both Jaina sects, are the supposed teachers (_Gurus_). Many of them, of course, never teach at all. They were formerly called Nirgrantha, "free from worldly ties," and are often known by the general name of S[=a]dhu, "holy men." All are celibates, and most of them are cenobites, not anchorites. Sometimes four or five hundred live together in one monastery, which they call an Up[=a]s´raya,[14] "place of retirement," under a presiding abbot. They dress, like other Hind[=u] ascetics, in yellowish-pink or salmon-coloured garments.[15] There are also female ascetics (_S[=a]dhvin[=i]_, or, anciently, _Nirgranth[=i]_), who may be seen occasionally in public places clothed in dresses of a similar colour. When these good women draw the ends of their robes over their heads to conceal their features, and cover the lower part of their faces with pieces of muslin to prevent animalculæ from entering their mouths, they look very like hooded Roman Catholic nuns. I saw several threading their way through the crowded streets of Ahmedabad, apparently bent, like sisters of mercy, on charitable errands.
Of course, in Jainism anything like a Br[=a]hmanical priesthood would be an impossibility. Jainas reject the whole body of the Veda, Vedic sacrifices and ritual, and hold it to be a heinous sin to kill an animal of any kind, even for religious purposes. They have, however, a Veda of their own, consisting of a series of forty-five sacred writings, collectively called [=A]gamas. They are all in the Jaina form of the M[=a]gadh[=i] dialect (differing from, yet related to, the P[=a]l[=i] of the Buddhists, the M[=a]gadh[=i] Pr[=a]krit of Vararuchi, and the Pr[=a]krit of the plays), and are classed under the different heads of Anga, Up[=a]nga, P[=a]inna (Sanskrit, _Prak[=i]rnaka_), M[=u]la, Chheda, Anuyoga, and Nandi. Of these the eleven Angas are the most esteemed, but the whole series is equally regarded as S´ruti, or divine revelation. The M[=a]gadh[=i] text is sometimes explained by Sanskrit commentaries, and sometimes by commentaries in the M[=a]rw[=a]r[=i] dialect, very common among merchants in the West of India. Some of the best known Angas and Up[=a]ngas were procured by me when I was last at Bombay, through the kind assistance of Dr. Bühler; but it appears doubtful whether they would repay the trouble which a complete perusal and thorough examination of such voluminous writings would entail. It may safely be affirmed that their teaching, like that of the Pur[=a]nas, is anything but consistent or uniform, and that they deal with subjects--such as the formation of the universe, history, geography, and chronology--of which their authors are profoundly ignorant.