interminable succession of white marble courts tenanted only by flocks of sacred pigeons.  On every side sculptured chapels gorgeous in gold and colour stand silent and open:  within are saints sitting grave and passionless behind the lights that burn on their altars.  The multitude of calm stone faces, the strange silence and emptiness, unaccompanied by any sign of neglect or decay, the bewildering repetition of shrines and deities in this aerial castle, suggest nothing built with human purpose but some petrified spirit world.

Soon after dawn a string of devotees daily ascends the hill.  Most are laymen, but there is a considerable sprinkling of ascetics, especially nuns.  After joining the order both sexes wear yellowish white robes and carry long sticks.  They spend much of their time in visiting holy places and usually do not stop at one rest house for more than two months.  The worship performed in the temples consists of simple offerings of flowers, incense and lights made with little ceremony.  Pilgrims go their rounds in small bands and kneeling together before the images sing the praises of the Jinas.

6

It is remarkable that Jainism is still a living sect, whereas the Buddhists have disappeared from India.  Its strength and persistence are centred in its power of enlisting the interest of the laity and of forming them into a corporation.  In theory the position of the Jain and Buddhist layman is the same.  Both revere and support a religious order for which they have not a vocation, and are bound by minor vows less stringent than those of the monks.  But among the Buddhists the members of the order came to be regarded more and more as the true church[291] and the laity tended to become (what they actually have become in China and Japan) pious persons who revere that order as something extraneous to themselves and very often only as one among several religious organizations.  Hence when in India monasteries decayed or were destroyed, little active Buddhism was left outside them.  But the wandering ascetics of the Jains never concentrated the strength of the religion in themselves to the same extent; the severity of their rule limited their numbers:  the laity were wealthy and practically formed a caste; persecution acted as a tonic.  As a result we have a sect analogous in some ways to the Jews, Parsis, and Quakers[292], among all of whom we find the same features, namely a wealthy laity, little or no sacerdotalism and endurance of persecution.

Another question of some interest is how far Jainism should be regarded as separate from Buddhism.  Historically the position seems clear.  Both are offshoots of a movement which was active in India in the sixth century B.C. in certain districts and especially among the aristocracy.  Of these offshoots—­the survivors among many which hardly outlived their birth—­Jainism was a trifle the earlier, but Buddhism was superior and more satisfying to the intellect and moral sense