DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.635#0070
JAINISM 57
stitution of the order recognized as members, not only
the monks and nuns who took the vows, but it also
admitted as lay brothers and sisters all who supported
the religious institutions of the Jain community.
When the Buddhist religious houses declined in influ-
ence, the looseness of the ties which attached their lay
adherents to them caused the latter to revert easily to
their traditional spiritual leaders. The whole organi-
zation thus gradually broke to pieces. The Jains, on
the other hand, being a much more homogeneous
body, survived the period of the Brahmin supremacy
and the persecution of Muhammadan rule. They have
maintained their institutions intact for over two thou-
sand years, while Buddhism, as a distinct sect, gradu-
ally disappeared from India and became merged in the
various Vaishnavite sects which grew into prominence
about the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
stitution of the order recognized as members, not only
the monks and nuns who took the vows, but it also
admitted as lay brothers and sisters all who supported
the religious institutions of the Jain community.
When the Buddhist religious houses declined in influ-
ence, the looseness of the ties which attached their lay
adherents to them caused the latter to revert easily to
their traditional spiritual leaders. The whole organi-
zation thus gradually broke to pieces. The Jains, on
the other hand, being a much more homogeneous
body, survived the period of the Brahmin supremacy
and the persecution of Muhammadan rule. They have
maintained their institutions intact for over two thou-
sand years, while Buddhism, as a distinct sect, gradu-
ally disappeared from India and became merged in the
various Vaishnavite sects which grew into prominence
about the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.