[1] The English use of the word for a worthless, ill-tempered horse,
a "screw," also applied as a term of reproach to a woman, has been
referred doubtfully to the same Spanish source as the O. Sp.
_ijadear_, meaning to pant, of a broken-winded horse.
JAEN, an inland province of southern Spain, formed in 1833 of districts
belonging to Andalusia; bounded on the N. by Ciudad Real and Albacete,
E. by Albacete and Granada, S. by Granada, and W. by Cordova. Pop.
(1900), 474,490; area, 5848 sq. m. Jaen comprises the upper basin of the
river Guadalquivir, which traverses the central districts from east to
west, and is enclosed on the north, south and east by mountain ranges,
while on the west it is entered by the great Andalusian plain. The
Sierra Morena, which divides Andalusia from New Castile, extends along
the northern half of the province, its most prominent ridges being the
Loma de Chiclana and the Loma de Ubeda; the Sierras de Segura, in the
east, derive their name from the river Segura, which rises just within
the border; and between the last-named watershed, its continuation the
Sierra del Pozo, and the parallel Sierra de Cazorla, is the source of
the Guadalquivir. The loftiest summits in the province are those of the
Sierra Magina (7103 ft.) farther west and south. Apart from the
Guadalquivir the only large rivers are its right-hand tributaries the
Jándula and Guadalimar, its left-hand tributary the Guadiana Menor, and
the Segura, which flows east and south to the Mediterranean.
In a region which varies so markedly in the altitude of its surface,
the climate is naturally unequal; and, while the bleak, wind-swept
highlands are only available as sheep-walks, the well-watered and
fertile valleys favour the cultivation of the vine, the olive and all
kinds of cereals. The mineral wealth of Jaen has been known since
Roman times, and mining is an important industry, with its centre at
Lináres. Over 400 lead mines were worked in 1903; small quantities of
iron, copper and salt are also obtained. There is some trade in sawn
timber and cloth; esparto fabrics, alcohol and oil are manufactured.
The roads, partly owing to the development of mining, are more
numerous and better kept than in most Spanish provinces. Railway
communication is also very complete in the western districts, as the
main line Madrid-Cordova-Seville passes through them and is joined
south of Lináres by two important railways--from Algeciras and Malaga
on the south-west, and from Almería on the south-east. The eastern
half of Jaen is inaccessible by rail. In the western half are Jaen,
the capital (pop. (1900), 26,434), with Andujar (16,302), Baeza
(14,379), Bailen (7420), Lináres (38,245), Martos (17,078) and Ubeda
(19,913). Other towns of more than 7000 inhabitants are Alcalá la
Real, Alcaudete, Arjona, La Carolina and Porcuna, in the west; and
Cazorla, Quesada, Torredonjimeno, Villacarillo and Villanueva del
Arzobispo, in the east.
JAEN, the capital of the Spanish province of Jaen, on the Lináres-Puente
Genil railway, 1500 ft. above the sea. Pop. (1900), 26,434. Jaen is
finely situated on the well-wooded northern slopes of the Jabalcuz
Mountains, overlooking the picturesque valleys of the Jaen and
Guadalbullon rivers, which flow north into the Guadalquivir. The
hillside upon which the narrow and irregular city streets rise in
terraces is fortified with Moorish walls and a Moorish citadel. Jaen is
an episcopal see. Its cathedral was founded in 1532; and, although it
remained unfinished until late in the 18th century, its main
characteristics are those of the Renaissance period. The city contains
many churches and convents, a library, art galleries, theatres, barracks
and hospitals. Its manufactures include leather, soap, alcohol and
linen; and it was formerly celebrated for its silk. There are hot
mineral springs in the mountains, 2 m. south.
The identification of Jaen with the Roman Aurinx, which has sometimes
been suggested, is extremely questionable. After the Moorish conquest
Jaen was an important commercial centre, under the name of Jayyan; and
ultimately became capital of a petty kingdom, which was brought to an
end only in 1246 by Ferdinand III. of Castille, who transferred hither
the bishopric of Baeza in 1248. Ferdinand IV. died at Jaen in 1312. In
1712 the city suffered severely from an earthquake.
JAFARABAD, a state of India, in the Kathiawar agency of Bombay, forming
part of the territory of the nawab of Janjira; area, 42 sq. m.; pop.
(1901), 12,097; estimated revenue, £4000. The town of Jafarabad (pop.
6038), situated on the estuary of a river, carries on a large coasting
trade.
JAFFNA, a town of Ceylon, at the northern extremity of the island. The
fort was described by Sir J. Emerson Tennent as "the most perfect little
military work in Ceylon--a pentagon built of blocks of white coral." The
European part of the town bears the Dutch stamp more distinctly than any
other town in the island; and there still exists a Dutch Presbyterian
church. Several of the church buildings date from the time of the
Portuguese. In 1901 Jaffna had a population of 33,879, while in the
district or peninsula of the same name there were 300,851 persons,
nearly all Tamils, the only Europeans being the civil servants and a few
planters. Coco-nut planting has not been successful of recent years. The
natives grow palmyras freely, and have a trade in the fibre of this
palm. They also grow and export tobacco, but not enough rice for their
own requirements. A steamer calls weekly, and there is considerable
trade. The railway extension from Kurunegala due north to Jaffna and the
coast was commenced in 1900. Jaffna is the seat of a government agent
and district judge, and criminal sessions of the supreme court are
regularly held. Jaffna, or, as the natives call it, Yalpannan, was
occupied by the Tamils about 204 B.C., and there continued to be Tamil
rajahs of Jaffna till 1617, when the Portuguese took possession of the
place. As early as 1544 the missionaries under Francis Xavier had made
converts in this part of Ceylon, and after the conquest the Portuguese
maintained their proselytizing zeal. They had a Jesuit college, a
Franciscan and a Dominican monastery. The Dutch drove out the Portuguese
in 1658. The Church of England Missionary Society began its work in
Jaffna in 1818, and the American Missionary Society in 1822.
JÄGER, GUSTAV (1832- ), German naturalist and hygienist, was born at
Bürg in Württemberg on the 23rd of June 1832. After studying medicine at
Tübingen he became a teacher of zoology at Vienna. In 1868 he was
appointed professor of zoology at the academy of Hohenheim, and
subsequently he became teacher of zoology and anthropology at Stuttgart
polytechnic and professor of physiology at the veterinary school. In
1884 he abandoned teaching and started practice as a physician in
Stuttgart. He wrote various works on biological subjects, including _Die
Darwinsche Theorie und ihre Stellung zu Moral und Religion_ (1869),
_Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Zoologie_ (1871-1878), and _Die Entdeckung der
Seele_ (1878). In 1876 he suggested an hypothesis in explanation of
heredity, resembling the germ-plasm theory subsequently elaborated by
August Weismann, to the effect that the germinal protoplasm retains its
specific properties from generation to generation, dividing in each
reproduction into an ontogenetic portion, out of which the individual is
built up, and a phylogenetic portion, which is reserved to form the
reproductive material of the mature offspring. In _Die Normalkleidung
als Gesundheitsschutz_ (1880) he advocated the system of clothing
associated with his name, objecting especially to the use of any kind of
vegetable fibre for clothes.
JÄGERNDORF (Czech, _Krnov_), a town of Austria, in Silesia, 18 m. N.W.
of Troppau by rail. Pop. (1900), 14,675, mostly German. It is situated
on the Oppa and possesses a château belonging to Prince Liechtenstein,
who holds extensive estates in the district. Jägerndorf has large
manufactories of cloth, woollens, linen and machines, and carries on an
active trade. On the neighbouring hill of Burgberg (1420 ft.) are a
church, much visited as a place of pilgrimage, and the ruins of the seat
of the former princes of Jägerndorf. The claim of Prussia to the
principality of Jägerndorf was the occasion of the first Silesian war
(1740-1742), but in the partition, which followed, Austria retained the
larger portion of it. Jägerndorf suffered severely during the Thirty
Years' War, and was the scene of engagements between the Prussians and
Austrians in May 1745 and in January 1779.
JAGERSFONTEIN, a town in the Orange Free State, 50 m. N.W. by rail of
Springfontein on the trunk line from Cape Town to Pretoria. Pop. (1904),
5657--1293 whites and 4364 coloured persons. Jagersfontein, which
occupies a pleasant situation on the open veld about 4500 ft. above the
sea, owes its existence to the valuable diamond mine discovered here in
1870. The first diamond, a stone of 50 carats, was found in August of
that year, and digging immediately began. The discovery a few weeks
later of the much richer mines at Bultfontein and Du Toits Pan, followed
by the great finds at De Beers and Colesberg Kop (Kimberley) caused
Jagersfontein to be neglected for several years. Up to 1887 the claims
in the mine were held by a large number of individuals, but coincident
with the efforts to amalgamate the interest in the Kimberley mines a
similar movement took place at Jagersfontein, and by 1893 all the claims
became the property of one company, which has a working arrangement with
the De Beers corporation. The mine, which is worked on the open system
and has a depth of 450 ft., yields stones of very fine quality, but the
annual output does not exceed in value £500,000. In 1909 a shaft 950 ft.
deep was sunk with a view to working the mine on the underground system.
Among the famous stones found in the mine are the "Excelsior" (weighing
971 carats, and larger than any previously discovered) and the "Jubilee"
(see DIAMOND). The town was created a municipality in 1904.
Fourteen miles east of Jagersfontein is Boomplaats, the site of the
battle fought in 1848 between the Boers under A. W. Pretorius and the
British under Sir Harry Smith (see ORANGE FREE STATE: _History_).
JAGO, RICHARD (1715-1781), English poet, third son of Richard Jago,
rector of Beaudesert, Warwickshire, was born in 1715. He went up to
University College, Oxford, in 1732, and took his degree in 1736. He was
ordained to the curacy of Snitterfield, Warwickshire, in 1737, and
became rector in 1754; and, although he subsequently received other
preferments, Snitterfield remained his favourite residence. He died
there on the 8th of May 1781. He was twice married. Jago's best-known
poem, _The Blackbirds_, was first printed in Hawkesworth's _Adventurer_
(No. 37, March 13, 1753), and was generally attributed to Gilbert West,
but Jago published it in his own name, with other poems, in R. Dodsley's
_Collection of Poems_ (vol. iv., 1755). In 1767 appeared a topographical
poem, _Edge Hill, or the Rural Prospect delineated and moralized_; two
separate sermons were published in 1755; and in 1768 _Labour and Genius,
a Fable_. Shortly before his death Jago revised his poems, and they were
published in 1784 by his friend, John Scott Hylton, as _Poems Moral and
Descriptive_.
See a notice prefixed to the edition of 1784; A. Chalmers, _English
Poets_ (vol. xvii., 1810); F. L. Colvile, _Warwickshire Worthies_
(1870); some biographical notes are to be found in the letters of
Shenstone to Jago printed in vol. iii. of Shenstone's _Works_ (1769).
JAGUAR (_Felis onca_), the largest species of the _Felidae_ found on the
American continent, where it ranges from Texas through Central and South
America to Patagonia. In the countries which bound its northern limit it
is not frequently met with, but in South America it is quite common, and
Don Felix de Azara states that when the Spaniards first settled in the
district between Montevideo and Santa Fé, as many as two thousand were
killed yearly. The jaguar is usually found singly (sometimes in pairs),
and preys upon such quadrupeds as the horse, tapir, capybara, dogs or
cattle. It often feeds on fresh-water turtles; sometimes following the
reptiles into the water to effect a capture, it inserts a paw between
the shells and drags out the body of the turtle by means of its sharp
claws. Occasionally after having tasted human flesh, the jaguar becomes
a confirmed man-eater. The cry of this great cat, which is heard at
night, and most frequently during the pairing season, is deep and hoarse
in tone, and consists of the sound _pu, pu_, often repeated. The female
brings forth from two to four cubs towards the close of the year, which
are able to follow their mother in about fifteen days after birth. The
ground colour of the jaguar varies greatly, ranging from white to black,
the rosette markings in the extremes being but faintly visible. The
general or typical coloration is, however, a rich tan upon the head,
neck, body, outside of legs, and tail near the root. The upper part of
the head and sides of the face are thickly marked with small black
spots, and the rest of body is covered with rosettes, formed of rings of
black spots, with a black spot in the centre, and ranged lengthwise
along the body in five to seven rows on each side. These black rings are
heaviest along the back. The lips, throat, breast and belly, the inside
of the legs and the lower sides of tail are pure white, marked with
irregular spots of black, those on the breast being long bars and on the
belly and inside of legs large blotches. The tail has large black spots
near the root, some with light centres, and from about midway of its
length to the tip it is ringed with black. The ears are black behind,
with a large buff spot near the tip. The nose and upper lip are light
rufous brown. The size varies, the total length of a very large specimen
measuring 6 ft. 9 in.; the average length, however, is about 4 ft. from
the nose to root of tail. In form the jaguar is thick-set; it does not
stand high upon its legs; and in comparison with the leopard is heavily
built; but its movements are very rapid, and it is fully as agile as its
more graceful relative. The skull resembles that of the lion and tiger,
but is much broader in proportion to its length, and may be identified
by the presence of a tubercle on the inner edge of the orbit. The
species has been divided into a number of local forms, regarded by some
American naturalists as distinct species, but preferably ranked as
sub-species or races.
[Illustration: The Jaguar (_Felis onca_).]
JAGUARONDI, or YAGUARONDI (_Felis jaguarondi_), a South American wild
cat, found in Brazil, Paraguay and Guiana, ranging to north-eastern
Mexico. This relatively small cat, uniformly coloured, is generally of
some shade of brownish-grey, but in some individuals the fur has a
rufous coat, while in others grey predominates. These cats are said by
Don Felix de Azara to keep to cover, without venturing into open places.
They attack tame poultry and also young fawns. The names jaguarondi and
eyra are applied indifferently to this species and _Felis eyra_.
JAHANABAD, a town of British India in Gaya district, Bengal, situated on
a branch of the East Indian railway. Pop. (1901), 7018. It was once a
flourishing trading town, and in 1760 it formed one of the eight
branches of the East India Company's central factory at Patna. Since the
introduction of Manchester goods, the trade of the town in cotton cloth
has almost entirely ceased; but large numbers of the Jolaha or
Mahommedan weaver caste live in the neighbourhood.
JAHANGIR, or JEHANGIR (1569-1627), Mogul emperor of Delhi, succeeded his
father Akbar the Great in 1605. His name was Salim, but he assumed the
title of Jahangir, "Conqueror of the World," on his accession. It was in
his reign that Sir Thomas Roe came as ambassador of James I., on behalf
of the English company. He was a dissolute ruler, much addicted to
drunkenness, and his reign is chiefly notable for the influence enjoyed
by his wife Nur Jahan, "the Light of the World." At first she influenced
Jahangir for good, but surrounding herself with her relatives she
aroused the jealousy of the imperial princes; and Jahangir died in 1627
in the midst of a rebellion headed by his son, Khurram or Shah Jahan,
and his greatest general, Mahabat Khan. The tomb of Jahangir is situated
in the gardens of Shahdera on the outskirts of Lahore.
JAHIZ (ABU 'UTHMAN 'AMR IBN BAHR UL-JAHIZ; i.e. "the man the pupils of
whose eyes are prominent") (d. 869), Arabian writer. He spent his life
and devoted himself in Basra chiefly to the study of polite literature.
A Mu'tazilite in his religious beliefs, he developed a system of his own
and founded a sect named after him. He was favoured by Ibn uz-Zaiyat,
the vizier of the caliph Wathiq.
His work, the _Kitab ul-Bayan wat-Tabyin_, a discursive treatise on
rhetoric, has been published in two volumes at Cairo (1895). The
_Kitab ul-Mahasin wal-Addad_ was edited by G. van Vloten as _Le Livre
des beautés et des antithèses_ (Leiden, 1898); the _Kitab ul-Bu-hala_.
_Le Livre des avares_, ed. by the same (Leiden, 1900); two other
smaller works, the _Excellences of the Turks_ and the _Superiority in
Glory of the Blacks over the Whites_, also prepared by the same. The
_Kitab ul-Hayawan,_ or "Book of Animals," a philological and literary,
not a scientific, work, was published at Cairo (1906). (G. W. T.)
JAHN, FRIEDRICH LUDWIG (1778-1852), German pedagogue and patriot,
commonly called _Turnvater_ ("Father of Gymnastics"), was born in Lanz
on the 11th of August 1778. He studied theology and philology from 1796
to 1802 at Halle, Göttingen and Greifswald. After Jena he joined the
Prussian army. In 1809 he went to Berlin, where he became a teacher at
the Gymnasium zum Grauen as well as at the Plamann School. Brooding upon
the humiliation of his native land by Napoleon, he conceived the idea of
restoring the spirits of his countrymen by the development of their
physical and moral powers through the practice of gymnastics. The first
_Turnplatz_, or open-air gymnasium, was opened by him at Berlin in 1811,
and the movement spread rapidly, the young gymnasts being taught to
regard themselves as members of a kind of gild for the emancipation of
their fatherland. This patriotic spirit was nourished in no small degree
by the writings of Jahn. Early in 1813 he took an active part at Breslau
in the formation of the famous corps of Lützow, a battalion of which he
commanded, though during the same period he was often employed in secret
service. After the war he returned to Berlin, where he was appointed
state teacher of gymnastics. As such he was a leader in the formation of
the student _Burschenschaften_ (patriotic fraternities) in Jena.
A man of democratic nature, rugged, honest, eccentric and outspoken,
Jahn often came into collision with the reactionary spirit of the time,
and this conflict resulted in 1819 in the closing of the _Turnplatz_ and
the arrest of Jahn himself. Kept in semi-confinement at the fortress of
Kolberg until 1824, he was then sentenced to imprisonment for two years;
but this sentence was reversed in 1825, though he was forbidden to live
within ten miles of Berlin. He therefore took up his residence at
Freyburg on the Unstrut, where he remained until his death, with the
exception of a short period in 1828, when he was exiled to Cölleda on a
charge of sedition. In 1840 he was decorated by the Prussian government
with the Iron Cross for bravery in the wars against Napoleon. In the
spring of 1848 he was elected by the district of Naumburg to the German
National Parliament. Jahn died on the 15th of October 1852 in Freyburg,
where a monument was erected in his honour in 1859.
Among his works are the following: _Bereicherung des hochdeutschen
Sprachschatzes_ (Leipzig, 1806), _Deutsches Volksthum_ (Lübeck, 1810),
_Runenblätter_ (Frankfort, 1814), _Neue Runenblätter_ (Naumburg,
1828), _Merke zum deutschen Volksthum_ (Hildburghausen, 1833), and
_Selbstvertheidigung_ (Vindication) (Leipzig, 1863). A complete
edition of his works appeared at Hof in 1884-1887. See the biography
by Schultheiss (Berlin, 1894), and _Jahn als Erzieher_, by Friedrich
(Munich, 1895).
JAHN, JOHANN (1750-1816), German Orientalist, was born at Tasswitz,
Moravia, on the 18th of June 1750. He studied philosophy at Olmütz, and
in 1772 began his theological studies at the Premonstratensian convent
of Bruck, near Znaim. Having been ordained in 1775, he for a short time
held a cure at Mislitz, but was soon recalled to Bruck as professor of
Oriental languages and Biblical hermeneutics. On the suppression of the
convent by Joseph II. in 1784, Jahn took up similar work at Olmütz, and
in 1789 he was transferred to Vienna as professor of Oriental languages,
biblical archaeology and dogmatics. In 1792 he published his _Einleitung
ins Alte Testament_ (2 vols.), which soon brought him into trouble; the
cardinal-archbishop of Vienna laid a complaint against him for having
departed from the traditional teaching of the Church, e.g. by asserting
Job, Jonah, Tobit and Judith to be didactic poems, and the cases of
demoniacal possession in the New Testament to be cases of dangerous
disease. An ecclesiastical commission reported that the views themselves
were not necessarily heretical, but that Jahn had erred in showing too
little consideration for the views of German Catholic theologians in
coming into conflict with his bishop, and in raising difficult problems
by which the unlearned might be led astray. He was accordingly advised
to modify his expressions in future. Although he appears honestly to
have accepted this judgment, the hostility of his opponents did not
cease until at last (1806) he was compelled to accept a canonry at St
Stephen's, Vienna, which involved the resignation of his chair. This
step had been preceded by the condemnation of his _Introductio in libros
sacros veteris foederis in compendium redacta_, published in 1804, and
also of his _Archaeologia biblica in compendium redacta_ (1805). The
only work of importance, outside the region of mere philology,
afterwards published by him, was the _Enchiridion Hermeneuticae_ (1812).
He died on the 16th of August 1816.
Besides the works already mentioned, he published _Hebräische
Sprachlehre für Anfänger_ (1792); _Aramäische od. Chaldäische u.
Syrische Sprachlehre für Anfänger_(1793); _Arabische Sprachlehre_
(1796); _Elementarbuch der hebr. Sprache_ (1799); _Chaldäische
Chrestomathie_ (1800); _Arabische Chrestomathie_ (1802); _Lexicon
arabico-latinum chrestomathiae accommodatum_ (1802); an edition of
the Hebrew Bible (1806); _Grammatica linguae hebraicae_ (1809); a
critical commentary on the Messianic passages of the Old Testament
(_Vaticinia prophetarum de Jesu Messia_, 1815). In 1821 a collection
of _Nachträge_ appeared, containing six dissertations on Biblical
subjects. The English translation of the _Archaeologia_ by T. C. Upham
(1840) has passed through several editions.
JAHN, OTTO (1813-1869), German archaeologist, philologist, and writer on
art and music, was born at Kiel on the 16th of June 1813. After the
completion of his university studies at Kiel, Leipzig and Berlin, he
travelled for three years in France and Italy; in 1839 he became
privatdocent at Kiel, and in 1842 professor-extraordinary of archaeology
and philology at Greifswald (ordinary professor 1845). In 1847 he
accepted the chair of archaeology at Leipzig, of which he was deprived
in 1851 for having taken part in the political movements of 1848-1849.
In 1855 he was appointed professor of the science of antiquity, and
director of the academical art museum at Bonn, and in 1867 he was called
to succeed E. Gerhard at Berlin. He died at Göttingen, on the 9th of
September 1869.
The following are the most important of his works: 1. Archaeological:
_Palamedes_ (1836); _Telephos u. Troilos_ (1841); _Die Gemälde des
Polygnot_ (1841); _Pentheus u. die Mänaden_ (1841); _Paris u. Oinone_
(1844); _Die hellenische Kunst_ (1846); _Peitho, die Göttin der
Überredung_ (1847); _Über einige Darstellungen des Paris-Urteils_
(1849); _Die Ficoronische Cista_ (1852); _Pausaniae descriptio arcis
Athenarum_ (3rd ed., 1901); _Darstellungen griechischer Dichter auf
Vasenbildern_ (1861). 2. Philological: Critical editions of Juvenal,
Persius and Sulpicia (3rd ed. by F. Bücheler, 1893); Censorinus
(1845); Florus (1852); Cicero's _Brutus_ (4th ed., 1877); and _Orator_
(3rd ed., 1869); the _Periochae_ of Livy (1853); the _Psyche et
Cupido_ of Apuleius (3rd ed., 1884; 5th ed., 1905); Longinus (1867;
3rd ed. by J. Vahlen, 1905). 3. Biographical and aesthetic: _Üeber
Mendelssohn's Paulus_ (1842); _Biographie Mozarts_, a work of
extraordinary labour, and of great importance for the history of music
(3rd ed. by H. Disters, 1889-1891; Eng. trans. by P. D. Townsend,
1891); _Ludwig Uhland_ (1863); _Gesammelte Aufsätze über Musik_
(1866); _Biographische Aufsätze_ (1866). His _Griechische
Bilderchroniken_ was published after his death, by his nephew A.
Michaelis, who has written an exhaustive biography in _Allgemeine
Deutsche Biographie_, xiii.; see also J. Vahlen, _Otto Jahn_ (1870);
C. Bursian, _Geschichte der classischen Philologie in Deutschland_.
JAHRUM, a town and district of Persia in the province of Fars, S.E. of
Shiraz and S.W. of Darab. The district has thirty-three villages and is
famous for its celebrated _sháhán_ dates, which are exported in great
quantities; it also produces much tobacco and fruit. The water supply is
scanty, and most of the irrigation is by water drawn from wells. The
town of Jahrum, situated about 90 m. S.E. of Shiraz, is surrounded by a
mud-wall 3 m. in circuit which was constructed in 1834. It has a
population of about 15,000, one half living inside and the other half
outside the walls. It is the market for the produce of the surrounding
districts, has six caravanserais and a post office.
JAINS, the most numerous and influential sect of heretics, or
nonconformists to the Brahmanical system of Hinduism, in India. They are
found in every province of upper Hindustan, in the cities along the
Ganges and in Calcutta. But they are more numerous to the west--in
Mewar, Gujarat, and in the upper part of the Malabar coast--and are also
scattered throughout the whole of the southern peninsula. They are
mostly traders, and live in the towns; and the wealth of many of their
community gives them a social importance greater than would result from
their mere numbers. In the Indian census of 1901 they are returned as
being 1,334,140 in number. Their magnificent series of temples and
shrines on Mount Abu, one of the seven wonders of India, is perhaps the
most striking outward sign of their wealth and importance.
The Jains are the last direct representatives on the continent of India
of those schools of thought which grew out of the active philosophical
speculation and earnest spirit of religious inquiry that prevailed in
the valley of the Ganges during the 5th and 6th centuries before the
Christian era. For many centuries Jainism was so overshadowed by that
stupendous movement, born at the same time and in the same place, which
we call Buddhism, that it remained almost unnoticed by the side of its
powerful rival. But when Buddhism, whose widely open doors had absorbed
the mass of the community, became thereby corrupted from its pristine
purity and gradually died away, the smaller school of the Jains, less
diametrically opposed to the victorious orthodox creed of the Brahmans,
survived, and in some degree took its place.
Jainism purports to be the system of belief promulgated by Vaddhamana,
better known by his epithet of Maha-vira (the great hero), who was a
contemporary of Gotama, the Buddha. But the Jains, like the Buddhists,
believe that the same system had previously been proclaimed through
countless ages by each one of a succession of earlier teachers. The
Jains count twenty-four such prophets, whom they call Jinas, or
Tirthankaras, that is, conquerors or leaders of schools of thought. It
is from this word Jina that the modern name Jainas, meaning followers of
the Jina, or of the Jinas, is derived. This legend of the twenty-four
Jinas contains a germ of truth. Maha-vira was not an originator; he
merely carried on, with but slight changes, a system which existed
before his time, and which probably owes its most distinguishing
features to a teacher named Parswa, who ranks in the succession of Jinas
as the predecessor of Maha-vira. Parswa is said, in the Jain chronology,
to have been born two hundred years before Maha-vira (that is, about 760
B.C.); but the only conclusion that it is safe to draw from this
statement is that Parswa was considerably earlier in point of time than
Maha-vira. Very little reliance can be placed upon the details reported
in the Jain books concerning the previous Jinas in the list of the
twenty-four Tirthankaras. The curious will find in them many
reminiscences of Hindu and Buddhist legend; and the antiquary must
notice the distinctive symbols assigned to each, in order to recognize
the statues of the different Jinas, otherwise identical, in the
different Jain temples.
The Jains are divided into two great parties--the _Digambaras_, or
Sky-clad Ones, and the _Svetambaras_, or the White-robed Ones. The
latter have only as yet been traced, and that doubtfully, as far back as
the 5th century after Christ; the former are almost certainly the same
as the Niganthas, who are referred to in numerous passages of the
Buddhist Pali Pitakas, and must therefore be at least as old as the 6th
century B.C. In many of these passages the Niganthas are mentioned as
contemporaneous with the Buddha; and details enough are given concerning
their leader Nigantha Nata-putta (that is, the Nigantha of the Jñatrika
clan) to enable us to identify him, without any doubt, as the same
person as the Vaddhamana Maha-vira of the Jain books. This remarkable
confirmation, from the scriptures of a rival religion, of the Jain
tradition is conclusive as to the date of Maha-vira. The Niganthas are
referred to in one of Asoka's edicts (_Corpus Inscriptionum_, Plate
xx.). Unfortunately the account of the teachings of Nigantha Nata-putta
given in the Buddhist scriptures are, like those of the Buddha's
teachings given in the Brahmanical literature, very meagre.
_Jain Literature._--The Jain scriptures themselves, though based on
earlier traditions, are not older in their present form than the 5th
century of our era. The most distinctively sacred books are called the
forty-five Agamas, consisting of eleven Angas, twelve Upangas, ten
Pakinnakas, six Chedas, four Mula-sutras and two other books. Devaddhi
Ganin, who occupies among the Jains a position very similar to that
occupied among the Buddhists by Buddhaghosa, collected the then
existing traditions and teachings of the sect into these forty-five
Agamas. Like the Buddhist scriptures, the earlier Jain books are
written in a dialect of their own, the so-called Jaina Prakrit; and it
was not till between A.D. 1000 and 1100 that the Jains adopted
Sanskrit as their literary language. Considerable progress has been
made in the publication and elucidation of these original authorities.
But a great deal remains yet to be done. The oldest books now in the
possession of the modern Jains purport to go back, not to the
foundation of the existing order in the 6th century B.C., but only to
the time of Bhadrabahu, three centuries later. The whole of the still
older literature, on which the revision then made was based, the
so-called _Purvas_, have been lost. And the existing canonical books,
while preserving a great deal that was probably derived from them,
contain much later material. The problem remains to sort out the older
from the later, to distinguish between the earlier form of the faith
and its subsequent developments, and to collect the numerous data for
the general, social, industrial, religious and political history of
India. Professor Weber gave a fairly full and carefully-drawn-up
analysis of the whole of the more ancient books in the second part of
the second volume of his _Catalogue of the Sanskrit MSS. at Berlin_,
published in 1888, and in vols. xvi. and xvii. of his _Indische
Studien_. An English translation of these last was published first in
the _Indian Antiquary_, and then separately at Bombay, 1893. Professor
Bhandarkar gave an account of the contents of many later works in his
_Report on the Search for Sanskrit MSS._, Bombay, 1883. Only a small
beginning has been made in editing and translating these works. The
best _précis_ of a long book can necessarily only deal with the more
important features in it. And in the choice of what should be included
the _précis_-writer will often omit the points some subsequent
investigator may most especially want. All the older works ought
therefore to be edited and translated in full and properly indexed.
The Jains themselves have now printed in Bombay a complete edition of
their sacred books. But the critical value of this edition, and of
other editions of separate texts printed elsewhere in India, leaves
much to be desired. Professor Jacobi has edited and translated the
_Kalpa Sutra_, containing a life of the founder of the Jain order; but
this can scarcely be older than the 5th century of our era. He has
also edited and translated the _Ayaranya Sutta_ of the Svetambara
Jains. The text, published by the Pali Text Society, is of 140 pages
octavo. The first part of it, about 50 pages, is a very old document
on the Jain views as to conduct, and the remainder consists of
appendices, added at different times, on the same subject. The older
part may go back as early as the 3rd century B.C., and it sets out
more especially the Jain doctrine of _tapas_ or self-mortification, in
contradistinction to the Buddhist view, which condemned asceticism.
The rules of conduct in this book are for members of the order. Dr
Rudolf Hoernle edited and translated an ancient work on the rules of
conduct for laymen, the _Uvasaga Dasao_.[1] Professor Leumann edited
another of the older works, the _Aupapatika Sutra_, and a fourth,
entitled the _Dasa-vaikalika Satra_, both of them published by the
German Oriental Society. Professor Jacobi translated two more, the
_Uttaradhyayana_ and the _Sutra Kritanga_.[2] Finally Dr Barnett has
translated two others in vol. xvii. of the _Oriental Translation Fund_
(new series, London, 1907). Thus about one-fiftieth part of these
interesting and valuable old records is now accessible to the European
scholar. The sect of the Svetambaras has preserved the oldest
literatures. Dr Hoernle has treated of the early history of the sect
in the _Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_ for 1898.
Several scholars--notably Bhagvanlal Indraji, Mr Lewis Rice and
Hofrath Bühler[3]--have treated of the remarkable archaeological
discoveries lately made. These confirm the older records in many
details, and show that the Jains, in the centuries before the
Christian era, were a wealthy and important body in widely separated
parts of India.
_Jainism._--The most distinguishing outward peculiarity of Maha-vira and
of his earliest followers was their practice of going quite naked,
whence the term _Digambara_. Against this custom, Gotama, the Buddha,
especially warned his followers; and it is referred to in the well-known
Greek phrase, _Gymnosophist_, used already by Megasthenes, which applies
very aptly to the Niganthas. Even the earliest name Nigantha, which
means "free from bonds," may not be without allusions to this curious
belief in the sanctity of nakedness, though it also alluded to freedom
from the bonds of sin and of transmigration. The statues of the Jinas in
the Jain temples, some of which are of enormous size, are still always
quite naked; but the Jains themselves have abandoned the practice, the
Digambaras being sky-clad at meal-time only, and the Svetambaras being
always completely clothed. And even among the Digambaras it is only the
recluses or _Yatis_, men devoted to a religious life, who carry out this
practice. The Jain laity--the _Sravakas_, or disciples--do not adopt it.
The Jain views of life were, in the most important and essential
respects, the exact reverse of the Buddhist views. The two orders,
Buddhist and Jain, were not only, and from the first, independent, but
directly opposed the one to the other. In philosophy the Jains are the
most thorough-going supporters of the old animistic position. Nearly
everything, according to them, has a soul within its outward visible
shape--not only men and animals, but also all plants, and even particles
of earth, and of water (when it is cold), and fire and wind. The
Buddhist theory, as is well known, is put together without the
hypothesis of "soul" at all. The word the Jains use for soul is _jiva_,
which means life; and there is much analogy between many of the
expressions they use and the view that the ultimate cells and atoms are
all, in a more or less modified sense, alive. They regard good and evil
and space as ultimate substances which come into direct contact with the
minute souls in everything. And their best-known position in regard to
the points most discussed in philosophy is _Syad-vada_, the doctrine
that you may say "Yes" and at the same time "No" to everything. You can
affirm the eternity of the world, for instance, from one point of view,
and at the same time deny it from another; or, at different times and in
different connexions, you may one day affirm it and another day deny it.
This position both leads to vagueness of thought and explains why
Jainism has had so little influence over other schools of philosophy in
India. On the other hand, the Jains are as determined in their views of
asceticism (_tapas_) as they were compromising in their views of
philosophy. Any injury done to the "souls" being one of the worst of
iniquities, the good monk should not wash his clothes (indeed, the most
austere will reject clothes altogether), nor even wash his teeth, for
fear of injuring living things. "Subdue the body, chastise thyself,
weaken thyself, just as fire consumes dry wood." It was by suppressing,
through such self-torture, the influence on his soul of all sensations
that the Jain could obtain salvation. It is related of the founder
himself, the Maha-vira, that after twelve years' penance he thus
obtained Nirvana (Jacobi, _Jaina Sutras_, i. 201) before he entered upon
his career as a teacher. And through the rest of his life, till he died
at Pava, shortly before the Buddha, he followed the same habit of
continual self-mortification. The Buddha, on the other hand, obtained
Nirvana in his 35th year, under the Bo tree, after he had abandoned
penance; and through the rest of his life he spoke of penance as quite
useless from his point of view.
There is no manual of Jainism as yet published, but there is a great
deal of information on various points in the introductions to the works
referred to above. Professor Jacobi, who is the best authority on the
history of this sect, thus sums up the distinction between the Maha-vira
and the Buddha: "Maha-vira was rather of the ordinary class of religious
men in India. He may be allowed a talent for religious matters, but he
possessed not the genius which Buddha undoubtedly had.... The Buddha's
philosophy forms a system based on a few fundamental ideas, whilst that
of Maha-vira scarcely forms a system, but is merely a sum of opinions
(_pannattis_) on various subjects, no fundamental ideas being there to
uphold the mass of metaphysical matter. Besides this ... it is the
ethical element that gives to the Buddhist writings their superiority
over those of the Jains. Maha-vira treated ethics as corollary and
subordinate to his metaphysics, with which he was chiefly concerned."
ADDITIONAL AUTHORITIES.--Bhadrabahu's _Kalpa Sutra_, the recognized
and popular manual of the Svetambara Jains, edited with English
introduction by Professor Jacobi (Leipzig, 1879); Hemacandra's "Yoga
S'astram," edited by Windisch, in the _Zeitschrift der deutschen morg.
Ges._ for 1874; "Zwei Jaina Stotra," edited in the _Indische Studien_,
vol. xv.; _Ein Fragment der Bhagavati_, by Professor Weber; _Mémoires
de l'Académie de Berlin_ (1866); _Nirayavaliya Sutta_, edited by Dr
Warren, with Dutch introduction (Amsterdam, 1879); _Over de
godsdienstige en wijsgeerige Begrippen der Jainas_, by Dr Warren (his
doctor-dissertation, Zwolle, 1875); _Beiträge zur Grammatik des
Jaina-prakrit_, by Dr Edward Müller (Berlin, 1876); Colebrooke's
_Essays_, vol. ii. Mr J. Burgess has an exhaustive account of the Jain
Cave Temples (none older than the 7th century) in Fergusson and
Burgess's _Cave Temples in India_ (London, 1880).
See also Hopkins' _Religions of India_ (London, 1896), pp. 280-96, and
J. G. Bühler _On the Indian Sect of the Jainas_, edited by J. Burgess
(London, 1904). (T. W. R. D.)