7. Jain ascetics.
The initiation of a Yati or Jati, a Jain ascetic, is thus described: It is frequent for Banias who have no children to vow that their first-born shall be a Yati. Such a boy serves a novitiate with a guru or preceptor, and performs for him domestic offices; and when he is old enough and has made progress in his studies he is initiated. For this purpose the novice is carried out of the tower with music and rejoicing in procession, followed by a crowd of Srāvakas or Jain laymen, and taken underneath the banyan, or any other tree the juice of which is milky. His hair is pulled out at the roots with five pulls; camphor, musk, sandal, saffron and sugar are applied to the scalp; and he is then placed before his guru, stripped of his clothes and with his hands joined. A text is whispered in his ear by the guru, and he is invested with the clothes peculiar to Yatis; two cloths, a blanket and a staff; a plate for his victuals and a cloth to tie them up in; a piece of gauze to tie over his mouth to prevent the entry of insects; a cloth through which to strain his drinking-water to the same end; and a broom made of cotton threads or peacock feathers to sweep the ground before him as he walks, so that his foot may not crush any living thing. The duty of the Yati is to read and explain the sacred books to the Srāvakas morning and evening, such functions being known as Sandhya. His food consists of all kinds of grain, vegetables and fruit produced above the earth; but no roots such as yams or onions. Milk and ghī are permitted, but butter and honey are prohibited. Some strict Yatis drink no water but what has been first boiled, lest they should inadvertently destroy any insect, it being less criminal to boil them than to destroy them in the drinker’s stomach. A Yati having renounced the world and all civil duties can have no family, nor does he perform any office of mourning or rejoicing.[9] A Yati was directed to travel about begging and preaching for eight months in the year, and during the four rainy months to reside in some village or town and observe a fast. The rules of conduct to be observed by him were extremely strict, as has already been seen. Those who observed them successfully were believed to acquire miraculous powers. He who was a Siddh or victor, and had overcome his Karma or the sum of his human actions and affections, could read the thoughts of others and foretell the future. He who had attained Kewalgyan, or the state of perfect knowledge which preceded the emancipation of the soul and its absorption into paradise, was a god on earth, and even the gods worshipped him. Wherever he went all plants burst into flower and brought forth fruit, whether it was their season or not. In his presence no animal bore enmity to another or tried to kill it, but all animals lived peaceably together. This was the state attained to by each Tirthakār during his last sojourn on earth. The number of Jain ascetics seems now to be less than formerly and they are not often met with, at least in the Central Provinces. They do not usually perform the function of temple priest.