The Association has been peculiarly active during the last three years. The energy of Mr. J. L. Jaini, Barristerat-Law, has proved of very great value to it in various directions. In 1910 the International Jain Literature Society was founded in London. All the leading Jains in Europe and all the chief European Jain scholars have become members. They propose to edit and publish Jain literature. In 1911 the Rishabha Brahmacharya Āśrama was founded at Meerut for the training of sadhus. The same year a branch of the Jain Literature Society was formed in India; and the Central Jain Library was founded at Arrah in Behar, for the purpose of collecting books and manuscripts, and cataloguing Jain literature. The Library issues a monthly magazine in Hindi, which is named the Jaina Siddhanta Bhaskara, and is published in Calcutta. Finally, as these words are being written, August 24, 1913, the Mahāvīra Brotherhood is being founded in London, for the purpose of uniting Jains resident in Europe and helping them to live the Jain life.

It may be well to notice that books in English are being published by Jains to introduce Jainism to Europeans. Of these we may mention an Introduction to Jainism, by A. B. Latthe,' M.A., Jainism in Western Garb, as a Solution to Life's Great Problems,2 by Herbert Warren, an Englishman who has become a Jain, and a third volume by Mr. J. L. Jaini, which is about to be issued by the Jain Literary Society.

Modern Indian religious movements find very close parallels among the Buddhists of Burma and Ceylon; but my knowledge of the religion and of the local conditions is too scanty to enable me to sketch the religious situation in those lands with accuracy.

1 Bombay, Natha Rangaji, 1905. 2 Madras, Thompson & Co., 1912, IS.

9. THE SIKHS

1. Nānak (1469-1538), the founder of the Sikh sect, was a disciple of the famous teacher Kabir. Except in two matters, his system is practically identical with that of many other Vaishnava sects. It is a theism, and the main teaching of the founder is highly spiritual in character. Yet the whole Hindu pantheon is retained. The doctrine of transmigration and karma and the Indian social system remain unaltered. The guru holds the great place which he has in all the later Vaishnava and Saiva systems. He is not only a teacher but a saviour, and receives worship. The two points on which Kabir and Nānak were unlike earlier teachers were these: they condemned the whole doctrine of divine incarnations; and they never ceased to protest against idolatry, thus preventing their followers from using Hindu temples. On one other point the two men seem to have been agreed: they did not wish their followers to become ascetics, but advised them to go on with their ordinary avocations.

Since the guru held such a great place in Nanak's teaching, it was necessary to appoint another man to succeed him at his death. Nine gurus were thus appointed, one after the other; and the series would have gone on indefinitely, had it not been for a momentous change introduced by the tenth guru. Nānak had left behind him a liturgy for the sect called the Japji, and also a considerable body of religious poetry. In this matter he was like many of the teachers of North India who lived before him. These poems were carefully treasured by the Sikhs; the second guru invented the Panjabi alphabet, called Gurumukhi, as the script for them; and the fifth guru gathered them together and made a book of them, including also a large number of pieces from Kabir and fifteen other saints. This volume

is called the Adi Granth, or "Original Book." The tenth guru added a great deal of fresh material; and the result is the Granth Sahib, or Noble Book of the Sikhs. Before he died, this guru told the Sikhs that they must not appoint another guru, but must take the Granth for their guru. Since that time this sacred book has been the centre and the inspiration of the sect.

But Govind Singh, the tenth guru, introduced another change of still greater importance. At the time when he was Sikh leader, at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, Aurangzeb, the last great Mughal Emperor, was pressing the sect very hard. He did all in his power, by means of persecution and administrative pressure, to turn them into Muslims. Govind Singh had the genius to perceive how the Sikhs could be organized so as to be able to resist the Mughals. He formed all those who were willing to enter into a covenant with him into what he called the Khalsa. The ceremony of initiation, Khanda-di-Pähul, Baptism of the Sword, gave it a religious character. Within this league Caste disappeared, and each man became a warrior, vowed to fight for his faith to the death, and to regard every other member of the league as a brother. They called themselves "Lions," each adding the word Singh to his name. The result was an army of heroes as unconquerable as Cromwell's Ironsides. Certain definite customs were laid upon them, which marked them off from other men, and increased the feeling of brotherhood among them. Infanticide, widowburning and pilgrimage were prohibited. Wine and tobacco were two. The

were proscribed. The consequences Khālsā became strong to resist the Mughals, but their organization cut them off from their fellow-countrymen, and made them practically a new caste.

The transformation of the Church into an army produced

another evil result; living preaching ceased among the Sikhs, and their religious life began to go down. Hinduism began to reappear among them. Though their founder had condemned the doctrine of incarnations, they soon came to regard each of their ten gurus as an incarnation of the Supreme; and, in spite of his advice, orders of ascetics began to appear among them.

The recognition of the Granth Sahib as the guru of the community has also proved unhealthy. The book is worshipped like an idol in the Golden Temple at Amṛitsār: a priest fans it, while the people throw offerings of flowers to it, and bow down before it. At night it is put to bed, to be waked in the morning for another day of worship. In a Sikh monastery in Conjeeveram, I was shown the altar where fire-sacrifice is regularly performed to the Granth. Nor is the rule against pilgrimage kept. Here and there one meets groups of Sikh ascetics on pilgrimage, visiting all the chief Hindu temples. When asked how they, as Sikhs, opposed to all idolatry, go to idolatrous temples, they answer that they go to look at the idols, not to worship them. This is surely as clear a case of the fascination of idols as one could wish to have.

After the fall of the Mughal Empire, the Sikhs became organized in two small democratic republics, called Taran Dal and Budha Dal. Then these subdivided into twelve missils, or petty states. Finally, Ranjit Singh united them all, and became the king of the Panjab. He ruled from 1800 to 1839. To their religious memories and warlike pride there was thus added the consciousness of nationality.

2. Ranjit Singh had been statesman enough to keep the peace with the British, who already held all the territory to the east of the Panjab; but he was not long dead before the Sikh leaders, in the pride of their old military

prowess, began to make raids on British territory. This the British would not endure. War followed in 1845, and the Sikhs were defeated; but even that was not sufficient. They would not keep the peace. Hence a second war, in 1848-1849, resulted in the annexation of the Panjab to British India.

The province was singularly fortunate in the British officers sent to administer it. John Lawrence, Eadwardes, Nicholson, Montgomery, Reynell Taylor were men of striking character, of great capacity and of Christian life. Hence the Panjab remained quite loyal throughout the Mutiny in 1857-1858; and the Sikhs have been one of the stoutest and most valuable elements in the Indian army ever since the annexation of the province.

3. Fresh religious influences came in with the empire. Christian missionaries entered the province in 1849, and since then have spread all over it; the Brahma Samāj appeared in Lahore in 1863; the Ārya Samāj began its aggressive and stormy career in 1877; and since 1898 the atheistic Deva Samāj has made its influence felt not only in Lahore city but in some of the country districts.

4. The Sikh community, for various reasons, has tended to become weak and impoverished. The following paragraphs are from their own paper:

They are poorer than their Hindu or Moslem brothers. They borrow money from the village Sahukars or moneylenders, to carry on their agricultural occupation, under very hard and exacting terms. All grain in excess of their bare necessities is snatched from them by some device or another. 'A person who has to be anxious for his livelihood cannot aspire to be wealthy' goes the Punjabi saying. Sikh peasantry could, therefore, hardly support their children for higher education. There are very few Sikh merchants and traders, and Sikh banking and trading companies hardly exist. This general state of poverty prevailing among them is the greatest hindrance in their