Persecution and still more the steady pressure and absorptive power of Hinduism have reduced the proportions of the sect, and the last census estimated it at one million and a third.  It is probable, however, that many Jains returned themselves as Hindus, and that their numbers are really greater.  More than two-fifths of them are found in Bombay, Rajputana, and Central India.  Elsewhere they are generally distributed but only in small numbers.  They observe caste, at least in some districts, and generally belong to the Baniyas.  They include many wealthy merchants who expend large sums on the construction and maintenance of temples, houses for wandering ascetics and homes for cattle.  Their respect and care for animal life are remarkable.  Wherever Jains gain influence beasts are not slaughtered or sacrificed, and when old or injured are often kept in hospitals or asylums, as, for instance, at Ahmadabad[277].  Their ascetics take stringent precautions to avoid killing the smallest creature:  they strain their drinking water, sweep the ground before them with a broom as they walk and wear a veil over their mouths.  Even in the shops of the laity lamps are carefully screened to prevent insects from burning themselves.

The principal divisions are the Digambara and Svetambara as above described and an offshoot of the latter called Dhundia[278] who refuse to use images in worship and are remarkable even among Jains for their aversion to taking life.  In Central India the Digambaras are about half the total number; in Baroda and Bombay the Svetambaras are stronger.  In Central India the Jains are said to be sharply distinguished from Hindus but in other parts they intermarry with Vaishnavas and while respecting their own ascetics as religious teachers, employ the services of Brahmans in their ceremonies.

4

The Jains have a copious and in part ancient literature.  The oldest works are found in the canon (or Siddhanta) of the Svetambaras, which is not accepted by the Digambaras.  In this canon the highest rank is given to eleven works[279] called Angas or limbs of the law but it also comprises many other esteemed treatises such as the Kalpasutra ascribed to Bhadrabahu.  Fourteen older books called Puvvas (Sk.  Purvas) and now lost are said to have together formed a twelfth anga.  The language of the canon is a variety of Prakrit[280], fairly ancient though more modern than Pali, and remarkable for its habit of omitting or softening consonants coming between two vowels, e.g. suyam for sutram, loo for loko[281].  We cannot, however, conclude that it is the language in which the books were composed, for it is probable that the early Jains, rejecting Brahmanical notions of a revealed text, handed down their religious teaching in the vernacular and allowed its grammar and phonetics to follow the changes brought about by time.  According to a tradition which probably contains elements of truth the first collection