Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s1.69

v2.c27.s1.69

The Jain Retreat.—The edicts Nos. VI. and VII.,² engraved on pillars of stone in the towns of Rasmi and Bakrol, further illustrate the scrupulous observances of the Rana’s house towards the Jains; where, in compliance with their peculiar doctrine, the oil-mill and the potter’s wheel suspend their revolutions for the four months in the year when insects most abound.³ Many others of a similar character could be furnished, but these remarks may be concluded with an instance of the influence of the Jains on Rajput society, which passed immediately under the Author’s eye. In the midst of a sacrifice to the god of war, when the victims were rapidly falling by the scimitar, a request preferred by one of them for the life of a goat or a buffalo on the point of immolation, met instant compliance, and the animal, become amara or immortal, with a garland thrown round his neck, was led off in triumph from the blood-stained spot.