Jains is the name of a heterodox sect of Hindus, found in most parts of Upper India, numerous more especially to the westward, but also scattered throughout the peninsula. They are important from their wealth and influence rather than from their number. Their tenets are in several respects analogous to those of the Buddhists (see BUDDHISM), but they resemble in others those of the Brahmanical Hindus. With the Buddhists they share in the denial of the divine origin and authority of the Veda. With the Brahmanical Hindus, on the other hand, they agree in admitting the institution of caste, in performing the essential ceremonies called Sanskāras, and in recognising some of the subordinate deities of the Hindu pantheon; but they disregard completely all those Brahmanical rites which involve the destruction of animal life.
According to their doctrine, all objects, material or abstract, are arranged under nine categories, called Tattvas, truths or principles, of which we need notice only the ninth and last, called Moksha, or liberation of the vital spirit from the bonds of action—i.e. final emancipation. In reference to it the Jains not only affirm that there is such a state of emancipation, but they define the size of the emancipated souls, the place where they live, their parts, natures, and numbers.
The principles of faith are common to all classes of Jains, but some differences occur in their duties, as they are divided into religious and lay orders, Yatis and S'rāvakas. The Yati has to lead a life of abstinence, taciturnity, and continence; he should wear a thin cloth over his mouth, to prevent insects from flying into it, and he should carry a brush to sweep the place on which he is about to sit, to remove any living creature out of the way of danger; but, in turn, he may dispense with all acts of worship; whilst the S'rāvaka has to add to the observance of the religious and moral duties the worship of the saints, and a profound reverence for his more pious brethren. The secular Jain must, like the ascetic, practise the four virtues—liberality, gentleness, piety, and penance; he must govern his mind, tongue, and acts; abstain, at certain seasons, from salt, flowers, green fruits, roots, honey, grapes, tobacco; drink water thrice strained, and never leave a liquid uncovered, lest an insect should be drowned in it; it is his duty also to visit daily a temple where some of the images of the Jain saints are placed, walk round it three times, make an obeisance to the image, and make some offerings of fruits or flowers. The reader in a Jain temple is a Yati, but the ministerial priest is not seldom a Brahman, since the Jains have no priests of their own.
The Jains fall into two principal divisions, Digambaras and S'wetāmbaras. The former word means 'sky-clad,' or naked, but in the present day ascetics of this division wear coloured garments, and confine the disuse of clothes to the period of their meals. S'wetāmbara means 'one who wears white garments;' but the points of difference between the two divisions are said to be 700, of which 84 are of paramount importance. In the south of India the Jains are divided into two castes; in Upper Hindustan they are all of one caste. It is remarkable, however, that amongst themselves they recognise a number of families between which no intermarriage can take place.
As regards the pantheon of the Jain creed, it is still more fantastical than that of the Brahmanical sects. The highest rank amongst their numberless hosts of divine beings—divided by them into four classes, with various subdivisions—they assign to the deified saints, which they call Jina (whence the usual name of the sect), or Arhat, or Tirthakara, besides a variety of other generic names. The Jains enumerate twenty-four Tirthakaras of their past age, twenty-four of the present, and twenty-four of the age to come; and they invest these holy personages with thirty-six superhuman attributes of the most extravagant character. They distinguish the twenty-four Jinas of the present age from each other in colour, stature, and longevity. Rishabha, the first Jina of this age, was 500 poles in stature, and lived 8,400,000 great years; whereas Mahāvīra, the 24th, had degenerated to the size of a man, and was no more than forty years on earth. The present worship is almost restricted to the last two Tirthakaras. The old view, endorsed by Professor Weber, was that the Jains are a remnant of the Indian Buddhists who succeeded in maintaining their existence by a compromise with Hinduism. The Jains themselves strongly insist that their faith is older than Buddhism; and Jacobi proves from the Jain texts that Buddhism and Jainism were developed out of Brahmanism by a very gradual movement, Jainism being probably the earlier. Modern Jainism Sir W. W. Hunter describes as 'a religion allied in doctrine to ancient Buddhism, but humanised by saint-worship.' In 1881 there were 448,897 Jains in British India.
See Oldenberg, Buddha (Eng. trans. 1882); Thomas, Jainism; or the Early Faith of Asoka (1877); Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures (1881); Jacobi, Gaina Sūtras ('Sacred Books of the East,' Clar. Press, 1885); and for the numerous and beautiful Jain temples, see Fergusson's Cave Temples of India (1880), and Burgess's Buddhist and Jaina Caves (2 vols. 1881–83).